the all to common "how many fish" ?

[twflys]

Well, I need some ideas as to how to stock my future 12 gallon nano. Went to the LFS to gaze at what I want to put in there. Ideally, I'd like to put 1 clown, 1 gobie, and maybe one more of something (not sure what though). And how about a sea horse or two? Lastly, my clean up crew...... shrimp, snails, crabs, hermits, etc. Maybe it's over kill....... but that's why i'm asking in advance.

 

Thanks and may the fish gods be with you all,

twflys

[Satchmo]

The clown, goby, and another small fish should be fine, just stock slowly. Seahorses have special needs (to name a few... low flow, daily live brine that you'll have to decapsulate, hatch, and fortify yourself, VERY carefully selected tankmates, and you can't house them with liverock). Don't try them unless you've got a dedicated system for them and a lot of patience.

 

Inverts- just stock 'em slowly (and diversely) until they're handling your algae production.

[TiGs]

Originally posted by Satchmo

Seahorses have special needs (to name a few... low flow, daily live brine that you'll have to decapsulate, hatch, and fortify yourself, VERY carefully selected tankmates, and you can't house them with liverock).

 

Why can't you house sea horses with live rock?

[twflys]

what about pipe fish and star fish...... and how many?

[Satchmo]

LR contains dormant hydroid jellyfish cysts (amoung other potential predators). When you feed the tank baby brine shrimp everyday, the jellies will spring to life and sting the hell out of the horses. Seahorse keepers using rock for filtration use dead rock and allow it to cycle to become bacterially active.

 

For other stocking questions, check out the articles in the info section of this board first. They're good guidelines as to what is appropriate nano livestock.