MeepNand Posted January 13, 2012 Share Posted January 13, 2012 I am planning on an invertebrate tank at school, that will be a touch tank on wednesdays at lunch, and the stocking list will be as follows: -1 misc. starfish, reef-safe -2 large hermits, 5 small ones -3 medium-size snails, 1 large snail -1 decorator crab or similar -1 small sea cucumber that will be moved to the 44 gallon tank at home when it gets too big -1 2-3 gal. bucket with 5 inches of sand and 4 sand crabs (sand fleas) -Misc. soft and LPS corals, and a duncan. Maybe a suncoral later. The care for these is just regular right?(water changes, feeding, etc.) The tank will have a 2 inch sand bed for the cucumber. The lighting will be 10 3 watt chinese GU10 bulbs on 2/3 of the tank, and a cheap fluorescent bulb for the other 1/3, to save money. The tank is a 20 long. Link to comment
Captain Hook Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 what is a touch tank? Link to comment
boxboy Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 what is a touch tank? touch tank = a tank wide shallow tank and people actually handle the live stock in the tank. Link to comment
GioReef Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 touch tanks and reefs don't mix buddy Link to comment
boxboy Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 touch tanks and reefs don't mix buddy Agreed, hands in reef tanks to much = BAD Same with handleing livestock to much. Link to comment
Seamonkey84 Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Live animals are not toys. Handling = stress and damage. I never agreed with the touch tanks at aquariums, as they practically consider those animals disposable as long as they attract a crowd. Having your own hand in tue tank is one thing as long as you dont have any lotions, oils, or soap on your skin (rinse and scrub well with just plain water). But even telling everyone to rinse their hands is not going to be enough in such a small closed system. Link to comment
MeepNand Posted January 17, 2012 Author Share Posted January 17, 2012 Well, the reality is that my marine club consists of about 5-6 people once per week for <1/2 hour, so it will not be a classroom of people touching the tank. Plus, each specimen will only be touched about once per month as I will switch out livestock in the touch tank. I will do a water change directly after each touching. If it is still a bad idea, then I will not do it. Can anybody comment of the combatibility/stocking issues? Link to comment
poolboy8888 Posted January 17, 2012 Share Posted January 17, 2012 Im gonna go in the opposite direction with my opinion, and say It could be a cool idea if the right animals are used. I think that most of us put our hands in our tanks more than we probably should, because we are OCD. so once a week of people TOUCHING NOT HANDLING would be fine. now here would be my stocking list: 1-2 skunk cleaners 2 hermits 1 black tip reef shark 3 snails 1 urchin 1 small slipper lobster (if you have a place for him when he gets bigger) and maybe the sand crabs if you attempt this you should not have piles of rock so the animals cant hide. the cucumber would be a bad idea just in case it inks. the weekly maintenance should be done on the day of touch, and a 50% water change should be done when the guests leave. you shouldn't have corals that are more fragile than zoa or gsp. so basically tide pool animals. Xenia would be great if you arnt scared of invasion. There are so many factors that you must consider, such as toughness of the animal and reaction to people that it will take long hours off thought to accomplish. The reason public aquariums are so undesirable for this is because they have people touch the animals every day. if it is once a week then the stress is recoverable and adaptable for the animal. Link to comment
MeepNand Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 Well, a cucumber is almost mandatory because it recieved the most votes, plus it is soft to the touch and interesting. It will only be touched once a month to make sure it does not get stressed out. I can't have a slipper lobster because the tank at home is too small. Also, there will be no fish, so that frees up room for more inverts. What is wrong with a decorator crab? They are popular additions to touch tanks because of their appearance and texture. There will be no handling anyway by any person because I am afraid the inverts will be hurt by insensitive fingers. Well, low-light corals will be on the list anyhow, and plus they have to go a day without feeding on Sunday, so GSP and mushrooms will be half the corals. Link to comment
poolboy8888 Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 nothing wrong with a decorator crab just forgot to put it in. my list was just a suggestion, but I would still advise against the cucumber. if you are looking for for thing soft the shrooms would be good. you cant kill those things with a stick! I would say anything poisonous would be out of the question. this is just my opinion, and you can do whatever you want as long as you're careful and watch every person whose hands are in your tank. Link to comment
MeepNand Posted January 18, 2012 Author Share Posted January 18, 2012 Thanks. Marine club is today, and I will run the plan over them. A second option would be upside-down jellyfish, but those are not that popular. Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.