♥♥ Avianette's Goby/Pistol Fluval Edge ♥♥

[StinkyBunny]

The ONLY damsels I'd trust in a reef tank not to be a jack wagon is the Springer's damsel or Rolland's, the rest can DIAF for all I care, miserable little wretches. You might get away with it for a while, but I like harmony in my systems and if there's a damsel in there, you may or may not have it, mostly not. Even fish that occupy different strata can be the target of damsel aggression. There is an up side to them, they're dumb as a box of rocks and easy to trap out of a reef system.

[Avianette]

Thanks for all the advice and reassurances! I'll look into the API Test kits next time, or the saliferts, so I can get some more accurate readings Today is Day 15 of my tank cycle journey~ Everything is about the same, but I conducted another water change so I can reduce the nitrates~ I'll need to keep an eye on nitrates and do repeated small water changes if needed~

 

I also forgot to mention that I've had diatoms for a few days now, so I think I might pick up a couple of Cerith snails and maybe a trochus

 

I love my damsel so much I feel like a weirdo hahaha I am reeeeeeeeally hoping she'll be tolerant of a goby/pistol combo.

 

Also, still trying to set up a quarantine tank in anticipation of new fish in a few weeks >.<

[Avianette]

A lot has happened in 3 days! I went to my LFS yesterday to pick-up a clean-up crew of snails. I had my hopes for certain species, but this is what I ended up putting into my tank with the given selection:

 

• 5 Small Nassarius Snails (greenish-black and TINY; any idea of the exact species?)
• 2 Margarita snails
• 3 Astrea snails

Decided to start off small and let them work on my diatoms/algae so I don't end up with starved snails later I hope I can get some Trochus if I need more snails in the future! But my current batch has being doing AWESOME on the diatoms after one day!

 

My water quality has been pretty great, and when I went to the LFS, they had a Yasha Goby and Randall's Pistol shrimp pair I built this tank for We took a nice long time to drip acclimate the pair, (after we already dealt with the snails), and they would've been happy, except Pluto, our blue damsel, just wasn't having it

 

I ended up taking the damsel out of the tank, but we really do love her! So we decided to pick up a Fluval Spec 5.5 (got it for $25!!! ) and other supplies, to set up a solitary palace for her... Definitely Princess Pluto now! After all, it was our error for putting new fish in her territory... It's currently cycling as we speak and I've watched hours of Pico tank vids

 

...

 

Anywho, goby/pistol found each other again, but have their burrow in the BACK corner right now But at least they are both eating consistently Actually saw the pistol a few times, and the goby is dutifully guarding their burrow~

 

Will post photos soon!

[JLynn]

I'm glad to hear that it all worked out in the end!

 

Pluto is a lucky girl to have someone that will give her her very own tank!

[Avianette]

Thanks JLynn! I hope she will be happy haha my computer wasn't doing well last night, so I couldn't upload photos, but he Spec is clearing up! Maybe I'll start a separate thread for it once we have bigger plans ?