My pico reef 3,5 gallons, help needed regarding stocking!

[Koatwithg]

Hello everyone!

I just wanted to show off my pico reef project. The tank is a 3,5 gallon (Dymax iq5)/(Superfish iq13). This pico has been running perfectly without big problems. This is my first reef tank and i am quite proud of it. The tank has been running for around 7 months now and i introduced corals on month 3. I just learned about this forum so i couldnt make a build thread. Regarding some corals looking a bit bland, i live in Denmark so getting my hand on coral and marine creatures is difficult. I bought some from other reefers around the country and i also got some shipped to me from Germany. 

 

Inhabitants:

Amphipods

Copepods

Skunk Cleaner shrimp

Blue leg hermit crab

Bumblebee snail

 

Corals: 

Green star polyps (I think) 

Green rhodactis mushrooms

Various Discosomas and Rhodactis mushroom

Frogspawn coral x2

Torch coral

A branching hammer coral

Blastomussa Wellsi

Ricordea Mushroom

Unknown Zoanthids

Duncan with 16+ heads

Candycane coral

Favia sp.

 

 

I'm thinking of getting a fish for this tank. I might have to get rid of the Shrimp which depends on the size of the fish. I do weekly 50% water changes and algae is no problem. I've been looking into getting a Spotted Coral Croucher goby (caracanthus maculatus) as it stays small at around 4cm, rarely moves and stays perched on rockwork or coral all day. For this one i might have to sell the shrimp to avoid too high bioload. Another fish i've been looking at is Eviota Pellucida. This Eviota also stays small and could also be nice for the tank. I hope you can help me out! 

[kimdawg]

Your tank is beautiful.  I think you can have a smaller fish in this tank.  I have a springer damsel in my 2.5 tank for the pico old school contest right now.  Ther are bunch of people with this size tank in the contest that have a fish.  Some people even have two fish in their 2.5 gallon.  I love the coral in the blue picture the best.

[Wingy]

Your tank looks great.

[RedCrow]

In a tank this size, bioload is much less of a concern than the psychological well being of the fish. I could keep a sailfin tang in a ten gallon tank and keep the system healthy, but that’s an extremely poor quality of life for that fish. As Kimdawg said, you could keep a young damselfish there for a while, but eventually you’ll have to move it out to a larger tank as it grows. 

I’m personally gonna go with a trio of Trimma/Eviota gobies in my pico, but you could also do a pair of any member of the neon goby family, or any of the coral gobies (NO citron goby though). 

For me, keeping fish (or any other animal) isn’t enjoyable unless I’m offering it the highest quality of life I can. The unfortunate truth is there are very few fish available that can thrive in a pico reef. 

[Tired]

Eviota, trimma, clown, and neon gobies are pretty much your only options. Everything else will need too much room once it hits adulthood. As RedCrow said, it's not about the bioload, it's about their need for space. I don't know anything about coral crouchers- I would try to see one in person, and watch how much it actually moves. If they're one of the few fish that really do just sit in one place all the time, they might work okay. 

 

Beautiful tank! Be careful of the green star polyps on the back wall, though, they'll take over your entire tank if you let them. Lots of trimming is necessary there once they start growing.

[Mitch's Fishes]

Tanks look great! Can you explain how your gravity auto top off is set up (I'm assuming that's what the bottle is in the back chamber)? I am trying to figure out a solution for top off on my pico reef. 

[Koatwithg]

On 10/17/2019 at 1:50 AM, RedCrow said:

In a tank this size, bioload is much less of a concern than the psychological well being of the fish. I could keep a sailfin tang in a ten gallon tank and keep the system healthy, but that’s an extremely poor quality of life for that fish. As Kimdawg said, you could keep a young damselfish there for a while, but eventually you’ll have to move it out to a larger tank as it grows. 

I’m personally gonna go with a trio of Trimma/Eviota gobies in my pico, but you could also do a pair of any member of the neon goby family, or any of the coral gobies (NO citron goby though). 

For me, keeping fish (or any other animal) isn’t enjoyable unless I’m offering it the highest quality of life I can. The unfortunate truth is there are very few fish available that can thrive in a pico reef. 

Thanks a lot! I'm gonna go with the Eviota goby.

[Koatwithg]

On 10/17/2019 at 2:12 AM, Mitch's Fishes said:

Tanks look great! Can you explain how your gravity auto top off is set up (I'm assuming that's what the bottle is in the back chamber)? I am trying to figure out a solution for top off on my pico reef. 

The bottle screws on to a device with two tubes going into the water, the shortest tube is cut to the desired water level and when it falls below that level air can enter and water flows out until the water line is aligned with the short tube. I bought it off Ebay for around 10usd. 

[Koatwithg]

On 10/17/2019 at 1:36 AM, Wingy said:

Your tank looks great.

Thanks man, the pictures i posted came out grainy and bland. I'll take some proper pictures tomorrow and post them on here. 

On 10/16/2019 at 11:43 PM, kimdawg said:

Your tank is beautiful.  I think you can have a smaller fish in this tank.  I have a springer damsel in my 2.5 tank for the pico old school contest right now.  Ther are bunch of people with this size tank in the contest that have a fish.  Some people even have two fish in their 2.5 gallon.  I love the coral in the blue picture the best.

👍 Will post better pictures tomorrow.

[Mitch's Fishes]

23 hours ago, Koatwithg said:

The bottle screws on to a device with two tubes going into the water, the shortest tube is cut to the desired water level and when it falls below that level air can enter and water flows out until the water line is aligned with the short tube. I bought it off Ebay for around 10usd. 

Any chance you can post a link to it? I can't seem to find what you are talking about on Ebay.

[Koatwithg]

44 minutes ago, Mitch's Fishes said:

Any chance you can post a link to it? I can't seem to find what you are talking about on Ebay.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/401833579404

Here you go 🙂

[Mitch's Fishes]

2 hours ago, Koatwithg said:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/401833579404

Here you go 🙂

Awesome, thank you!