A few observations and advice appreciated

[Mako]

Well, it would have been tough to put all the things I may ramble on about into the subject line of this posting but thanks for diving into the unknown and clicking anyhow. Now.....

 

I have my 7 gal bowfront fully online now with, at least when I started out, a (blue devil) damsel, two hermits and a camel back shrimp. The water parameters were and still are testing very well, everything as it should be. In fact as I will get into later I am led to believe they are so good that the tank could easily support another fish. Anyhow, the shrimp got a small grey spot growing on his back, then croaked about two days later. No apparent injuries, just that faded-at-the-edges spot and then no more shrimp. No idea what happened and he seemed to be eating normally up until that spot appeared. I had him in there for about five normal seeming weeks, no one bothering him or vice versa. Any thougthts on that?

 

 

I also found one of my two hermits about five weeks later (the bigger one) had been ripped to shreds by something. Removed from the shell and the body mostly eaten. No idea what did this since there wasn't a scratch on the much smaller hermit and there were other larger shells available so they certainly wouldn not have fought to get one another's. Again, any thoughts?

 

So I went for some about three weeks with just that one hermit w/the damsel and there had been some increased green hairy looking algae growth on the LR, also some that sort of makes one rock look like a fuzzy, green angora sweater of sorts. Some on the glass too. Not a huge overgrowth or anything, but I figured if it's there it may as well be eaten by a new, souped-up cleanup crew. So I went to the LFS this weekend and bought my first four astrea snails and three tiny blue legged hermits which, shells and all, would each fit on my thumb finger nail. Everyone seems to be enjoying their new home, though I thought with all the algae available everyone would be moving around a little more eating it. They seem to be almost uninterested in munching on it, and only one of the snails has discovered and started working on the algae on the glass. I was hoping the others would follow suit but they seem content on the LR for now. Is this normal? I expected these guys to be a little faster as far as cleaning the pad up a little.

 

Now to the fish......don't get me wrong, I like that damsel, but I've been wanting to have at least two fish as of late. I know no one is going to believe this but when I dropped in at the LFS the owner had a 4 or 5 gallon hex sitting on the counter (with LR in it) and it had a small domino damsel and a small blue devil or yellowtail in it, I forget which. They acted as though the other wasn't even there. I thought two damsels in a space like that would have ripped each other to shreds already but apparently it was working. Not that I would be interested in trying that but anyways...

 

I asked him about maybe removing the damsel and putting in something like two small clowns. He said they'd be prone to fight but I know you may actually be better off with (just) two clowns instead of one. He also suggested maybe a pair of blue chromis or two humbug (three-striped) damsels. I like the idea of the chromis just because two of them will get along, but they're kind of pale in color. And as far as having two clowns...do clowns just stay in the one spot (or near the object/coral) they adopt for themselves or do they actually swim around a fair amount? How much do they swim compared to damsels?

 

Thanks for any advice, experiences or suggestions......all responses appreciated and taken into consideration. Oh yeah, this guy at the LFS has been known to shovel BS my way sometimes so I take what he says with a chunk of salt.

 

Jeff

[Mako]

test reply

[Dave ESPI]

Tl; Dr

sooooooooooo what is the question?

 

 

ps: good out look so far, I think you will like ys here... we tend to rubb salt in festering wounds to make a point

Oh and thanks fer FIRSTPOST posting with intelegence and making an effort.

[bautin2]

Are you sure the hermit was ripped to shreds? I thought that same thing once, but the corpse that I thought I saw was just a discarded molted skin/shell. Just a thought, I'm sure you'd notice if the hermit you thought was dead was still crawling around in a 7 gallon.

 

As for the domino damsel. I have had one in a 55 gallon FOWLR for around 6 months now. He's tripled in size and is the meanest fish in the bunch...HTH

[Satchmo]

Damn Jeff, one question per post

You're better off without the camel back. If you plan on adding corals, he'd have to go anyway. But the problem could be your iodine levels, which shrimps need for molting. That said, I can't keep a shrimp alive in my 10g. Went through 3 skunk cleaners. Each one did fine for about a week, then I find them shredded to pieces. No idea what it was, but I gave up after loosing $75 worth of them. I can keep them without problems in another tank, but not in the 10. Go figure.

For the hermits, like bautin said, it could have molted (looks an awful lot like a dead crab), but if you found the empty shell and it's been a few weeks, I'd say he's gone (another molting problem? More evidence of out of whack iodine levels?) Although I thought I lost my lone scarlet once. Took him weeks to come out of hiding after a molt. Couldn't believe it when I found him plucking away at detritus one day, thought he was a goner.

 

Algae- give the snails time, they should find it. I'd also recommend that you diversify your cleanup crew a bit. One or two individuals from several different species is more beneficial than a handful of one type, IMO. Don't expect much from the blue legs. They don't touch algae for me, but they pick away at detritus.

 

The clowns would be cool, and a pair really bring out eachother's personalities. If you're doing a reef, two active clowns in a 7 is a little bio-heavy for me, but people do pull it off. If you buy an already mated pair, they won't fight.

 

As for the LFS, you can't really go by what they get away with. Two different damsels in a 5g is something that just isn't going to work out (especially when one's an evil domino). Fish in a LFS are immature, usually stressed to hell, and are only in those tanks until they're sold or they die. It just isn't something that will have a happy ending in the long run. Have fun!