10g livestock questions

[dime079]

I have a 10g based on the ac110 fuge mod which has been up for almost 5 weeks now. At the moment, there are a couple turbos, 3 hermits and 2 nas snails. Readings are all about in check and have been stable for the last couple weeks:

ph - 8.1
temp - 77
amon- 0
nitrite- 0
nitrate- 5-10 (going to try to do 20% water change weekly to get this to 0 out, been doing 10%)
sg 1.024
calc - 400-420

anyways, so there are massive amounts of copepods on my glass and just everywhere. I know I should be patient while introducing life into my tank, but is the wait up for a cleaner or coral banded shrimp or are nitrates still too high since my lfs said they are more sensitive to nitrates than most fish? (luckily i have about 3 lfs within about a 5 mile radius of my house

maybe a false perc.?

Just asking for opinions on what type/how many fish/shrimp you can keep in a 10g and what gets along with what (i know not to go crazy and add 4 fish at the same time so)

thanks.

 

[BShmerling]

I wouldn't put anymore that two small fish in there with a few inverts

The shrimp would be okay if you acclimate them slowly now

 

[rich415]

I'm a big fan of keeping small fish in small tanks. I had a yellow clown goby and a cleaner shrimp in my ten gallon and that was perfect.

After I set up my 37 gallon I decided that I needed more live rock before I tranfered everything from my ten gallon. I had already bought a clown fish so he had to go into my ten gallon so the new tank would re-cycle. I hated having two fish in the ten, especially the clown because they are too active for such a small tank.

 

[dime079]

Other than the price difference, is there anything else involved, other than personal preference, between a coral branded and cleaner shrimps, or pistol shrimp/goby pair?

i guess what im trying to ask is benefits of one type of shimp over the others?

i was thinking of starting with a royal gramma or firefish, but would like something to clean the sand (instead of having to siphon it during water changes) diamond watchman goby.

 

[puffer21]

I really like the goby and shrimp pairs. Mainly the yabsha goby and the candy pistol shrimp. I also think they would do well in a 10 gallon but that is all i would add for fish. Mabye a clown goby or another small fish.

 

[lizardcouple]

i would'nt siphon the sandbed just do a couple of cups for a water change. i would do a goby and shrimp pair that will keep the sandbed sifted if thats what your worried about.

 

[rich415]

Coral Banded Shrimp are supposed to be a little agressive. The one I had years ago (1st tank, 1st shrimp) sat behind the rock work all day and only came out at night. Very boring...other people have had different experiences though.

Cleaner shrimp are more active but pigs and can bully smaller more timid fish when it comes to feeding time. They do however pick off ich from fish. Mine cleaned my clown when I mistakenly got one with a couple of white spots.

The shrimp/goby pair seem like the most interesting choice for a ten gallon. I have no experience with them but have heard that they creat sandstorms in tanks or sometimes decide to create a burrow in the back of the tank and therefore are rarely seen.

 

[dime079]

Well I got paid today, and of course on the way home went to the lfs

here is the fts

and after about a 30 min chat 2 fish were decided on to start the tank family, (really wanted fish and shrimp but nitrates still a bit too high - see params above)

the diamond watchman goby

and the royal gramma-lamma-ding-dong (he is still a little shy, which is to be expected. so this is a quasi-action shot of me trying to keep him in the frame)

thanks to everyone who made their suggestions