29g invert heavy stockist

[ReefNole]

Hi all, I posted this in the "check your planned purchases" thread, but it was recommended here as it is invert heavy. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Setting up a standard 29g, 20lbs of dry rock, 20lbs of dry sand (to be seeded live), as a mainly invert tank. Will have HOB filter used as potential refugium, but no skimmer in the current plans. Main theme is a small tank that is constantly moving, no matter where you're looking (due to heavy invert population).

Planned inhabitants (in order of addition):
-Assorted snails (thoughts on qty after reading rest of list?)
-Assorted hermits (thoughts on qty after reading rest of list?)
-Emerald crabs (3x)
-Pom pom crabs (2x)
-Skunk cleaner shrimp (1x)
-Blood shrimp (1x)
-Sexy shrimp (1 or 2x)
-Peppermint shrimp (2 or 3x)
-Pistol shrimp
-Porcupine urchin
-Ocellaris clown
-Yellow watchman goby
-Purple firefish

Thanks in advance!

 

[Calappidae]

Seems fine.

Just note that hermit crabs may kill off the snails for their shells, and then kill each other for shells.

Emerald crabs are very oppertunistic and may attack the goby, firefish, and clowns if underfed.

Make sure the cleaner and fire shrimp both have overhangs or caves as far away from each other. There will not be room for the peppermint shrimp at all.

 

[Betta132]

Peppermints will be killed by the other shrimp.
Leave out the emerald crabs. They're opportunistic and your fish are all on the list of things a hungry emerald will eat.
Hermits will kill snails unless provided with a lot of empty shells.
The urchin may knock things around. Maybe consider a tuxedo urchin instead? Tuxedos will pick up small bits of stuff (gravel, coral polyps, shells, snails, algae, etc), but they're small and don't really bulldoze. They come in multiple nice colors, and there's a cool Halloween variant that's black with scattered white, orange, and green spines.
Other than that, looks pretty good. Just be sure the algae-eaters are all well fed.

 

[ReefNole]

Wow thanks for all the help. I'm sure glad I asked. So with all your feedback, this list should be much better. Also, I added porcelain crabs, as I forgot those.

Planned inhabitants (in order of addition):
-Assorted snails (might actually remove skip these)
-Assorted hermits (thoughts on qty after reading rest of list?)
-Pom pom crabs (2x)
-Porcelain crabs (2x **sorry, forgot these last time)
-Skunk cleaner shrimp (1x)
-Blood shrimp (1x)
-Sexy shrimp (2x)
-Pistol shrimp (1x)
-Porcupine urchin (or tuxedo)
-Ocellaris clown
-Yellow watchman goby
-Purple firefish

Knowing the thought behind the tank now, are there any other more exotic inverts that I may have missed that could replace any of these? Or just any others I could add to the mix?

 

[Calappidae]

You got a good balance there. Just make sure:

- Fire and Cleaner shrimp have seperated cleaning stations
- Sexy shrimp have a hosting coral frag of some kind. (Ricordea shrooms and xenia work great, minimaxi anems and pompomcrabs might be a war)

You can also add more sexy shrimp if you want. If you were up to the challange, harlequin shrimp would be alright too.

In regards to the urchin, there really isn't much of a different between pincushion and tuxedo besides design. They both get decently sized and pick up rubble and stuff. Tuxedo looks a bit more appealing IMO but pincushion doesn't get too much larger than it.

I never had pincushion before, but my tuxedo was doing fine around coral and coraline algea.

 

[snorvich]

I am glad you checked in here for advice!

 

[ReefNole]

Thanks for all the help. I'll stay away from the minimaxi to be safe. I was thinking about a Harlequin but I think I'll hold off for now given the starfish requirements.

Noob question though, why would adding another sexy shrimp and Harlequin be OK but a peppermint would clash? And would anything else like a sand sifting star or other shrimp like a bumble bee be OK? Or would it get lost in a 29 given their size?

And just one more (sorry), any sand depths requirements for a sand sifter or the tiger/pistol? I was going to use egg crate under the rocks for stability but don't wanna limit the depth with only 20lbs of sand.


Thanks again for saving money and troubles of losing those other additions.

 

[Calappidae]

For pistols, I'd recommend atleast a 2 inch high sand bed but they can work around whatever you give them.

A harlequin would be fine because they hold their own pretty well, they are not hostile torwards other livestock bar stars, however they aren't no pushovers either making them fairly compatable with other terroritoral livestock. Just don't keep them with coral banded shrimp or mantis shrimp.. the former for being too large, and the later for, well, obvious reasons. Large crabs like arrows and sally lightfoot aren't good either and naturally any kind of really big hermit crab can crush them like anything else.

Sexy shrimp kinda mind their own business so they won't be bothered by anything. They stay on the coral almost 24/7 and don't pose a threat to other shrimp, so they are usually left alone.

The peps on the other hand.. they are also cleaner shrimp just like fire and skunk cleaners, they WILL fight for territory against one another and those two.

Sand sifting starfish, please don't bother. They starve in home aquariums, kinda the same boat as horseshoe crabs.

Bumblebee shrimp will be fine aswell, they stay really really small and unlike sexy shrimp, they roam around a lot so they can put themselves in trouble. (filteration wise, they fit right in the intakes) You can still try them.

 

[ReefNole]

Wow thanks for all the details.

I think I'm good to go now. Certainly changed some plans as a result of this, so that's a good thing. I may try a bumblebee down the road but I'll stick to the hardier things first.

Thanks again!