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I finally set up my first marine tank. It is 16-gallons, with a CPR bak-pak 2R skimmer, a 10-gallon whisper mech/bio filter, a heater, 20 lbs of LR, and about 1 1/2 or 2 inches of aragonite. I has cycled, and now contains 3 margarita snails, 4 blue-legged hermit crabs, and one royal gramma. It is going to be a semi-reef because it wont totally be decked out with coral, but about half of it will be covered in different kinds of soft polyps (eventually). I have a few questions- dont worry about awnsering them all at once. NOTE- Q's 5-7-I would probably only get one of one of the mentioned types critters (unless I was told otherwise

1a) Could I add a pair of ocellaris clowns?
1b) If not, what other fish would be suitable?
2)Does anyone know anything about keeping sea whips? I have a purple one. I found it on the beach, but its definately alive. What should I feed it? what are light requirements?
3) My tank is a bowfront, and the hood came with it, and now I am restricted to one 18 inch flourescent bulb. Any suggestions?
4) how many blue legged hermits should I keep?
5)Could I get an arrow crab?
6)Can i get a coral banded shrimp?
7) are any brittle stars of starfish suitable?
8)Could i get a mitrax crab?

Long term no to clowns.
mostly firefish.
Im sure you could do some kind of modification with hood. i did some major ones to my 10g hood


the rest i will leave to the experts. i dont keep inverts unless they are snacks

If you get the coral banded shrimp, you wont be able to get any other shrimp. They do not play well with other shrimp.

The tank woudl be large enough for a pair of percula clowns, but it would be pushing the bio load. And the tank would be to small to get any anemone that they will host with.

Crabs are generally a bad idea, with the exception of micro hermits. A tank that size you could have 15 to 20 hermits.

As far as the brittle stars. They should all be fine. What you don't want is anything with knobs on it, such as a chocolate chip star fish.

For your lighting, you could go with a MH light. It's small but very bright and will help with corals and such.

Dan


Dan

Thanks for the replies!

Dthurs, when you said "they should all be fine" did you mean brittles, or regular stars, or both?

What is MH light?

Thanks!

brittles will be fine. I have a green serpent star and a banded brittle star in my reef.

MH is metal halide

Dan


Dan

i wouldnt have a pair of percs. for their whole life span they canreach a fairly decent size when conditioned well, are quite active and you want room for when the couple fights every now and then other wise the male could be stressed and killed

Perculas are among the smallest of the clowns. They generally don't get much over 2" in size. They are also among the least aggressive. I had stated two would push the bioload of a tank that size, and one would be better, but two would be possible if the tank is maintained. Both would need to be placed in the tank at the same time and need to be very small. This will insure that you do not have two females. If there are plans to upgrade the tank at a later date, perhaps a year or so down the road. A seaba anemone can be added. These do not get as large as a carpet, and a TRUE percula will host with it. I would suggest not getting a FALSE percula. These are cheeper and are not the same as a true percula.

Dan


Dan