56 Gallon Tall - Beginner Status

I would re-home the Sailfin. If you really want one, wait till you have the proper tank size. They need a lot of swimming room, and your tank just doesn't have it. Also, Tangs are extremely sensitive fish, and easily break out in Ich and other parasites/fungals. Also, the Eel (during feeding time) will go into a frenzy, and will chase small fish and attempt to eat them. Trust me on this, I have one that's about 14-15" now. I've lost, 5 damsels, and two occellaris clownfish to him. So, that scooter, and your cleaner shrimp, will most likely end up as a snack eventually. I don't want to sound mean or anything, but you really need to research stuff before you purchase fish/inverts to find out what will do well with what. Also, when stocking a tank, you should only do 1-2 fish per month. And you've added 4 or so in less then a week. Trust me, I did the stuff you did, and lost a bunch of fish myself. Hopefully some of the stuff I've said helps you avoid the loss of livestock. Even if none of it was super expensive, it's still a life you've taken responsibility for.... it relies on you to survive. That's not something that should be taken lightly. Hopefully, you don't take this the wrong way. We all just want you to do well in this hobby :)
 
Everyone is still doing well. Sunday morning we woke up to some dismembered crab arms, but all crabs are accounted for and are working diligently. The damsel lost a little tail fin the first couple of days and I noticed the tang had maybe one good bite on his back fin. But they are all much more cool with each other. I have started to feed 3 times a day. pellets in the morning, frozen mid-ish-day, and pellets again at night. they all eat together which is fun to watch, and this morning I can confirm that the scooter is eating the pellet food very readily. it floats to the bottom and he hops around gobbling it up. He probably got the most out of the morning meal. I noticed less aggression in the tank with more numerous feedings. Any time I find the tang is cornered by the damsel I throw a little food in there and everyone chills out. The brown diatoms seem to have peaked. I am thinking about adding a sand sifting star fish or some snails to keep the substrate moving. The eel has made his permanent home in my center rock and he has not come out further than a few inches in about 4 days.

Any suggestions on a small set of snails or a star I could add at this point?
Any info on activities I should expect from this eel?
 
Please do not get a sandsifting star. They don't do well in smaller, new systems.

Serpent (not the green ones) and brittle stars are great members of your CUC. Nass snails will keep the sand bed stirred.
 
No to the Horseshoe Crab. And definitely no to the sand sifting star. Nassarius snails or even a sand sifting goby would do much better. Also, three meals a day is a lot of food. They can easily survive on that much food a week lol. I feed mine once a day. Some mysis mixed with bloodworms and a like 10 pellets. And even what I feed is over kill. Also, make sure you feed the eel like 2-3 times a week. What are you feeding him? If it's silversides, I'd look for something else. They aren't very nutritional. Or, if that's all you can get for it, soak it in garlic or something. But, you can try live ghost shrimp, or frozen krill. Also, when you feed him, he is going to get very worked up. They don't see very well, and it can make a mistake and chomp down on one of your fish, so keep an eye on it. My advice is get a large stick, blunt the end of it really nicely, and wave the food sort of close too it. The eel will smell the food the moment it touches the water. Stay away from live feeder fish (Mollys/Goldfish/Guppies) as their makeup differs very greatly from saltwater fish and the eel will suffer from malnutrition. Every once in a blue moon, it's all right. But, don't make a habit out of it!

If I were you, I'd rehome the snowflake, and replace it with another Scooter. If you have a male, you can put a female in with him. Or, vice-versa.

The way to tell if a Scooter is male or female is: The Dorsal Fins. The male's dorsal fin will be MUCH larger then a females. I have a male and female in my 55 and they are fun to watch. They swim up and down the tank together :)
 
I appreciate all the advice! I like the eel but I don't know if it is the right home for him. I don't want to give him up just yet. Last night I moved some of the rock to keep the tang and damsel from fighting. The damsel tries to corner the tang in a cave, so I just made it a little more enclosed so they were seculded in the rock but it was big enough not to be cornered. that really seemed to help. I also think I am leaving my lights on too long during the day. I do full lights from abut 7-9 and then blue LEDs till 12, dark the rest of the time. Is this decently good practice? When I was moving the rock around I found a TON of uneaten food. I removed said waste. I have already started cutting back feedings. I did probably a teaspoon of pellets this morning and I will do a frozen cube when I get home from work. All the fish are still in good shape. My shrimp and both small crabs have molted in the last two days. that was pretty exciting. I have more pictures I can upload and add here. I might get to that today yet.
 
Your tang will get ich, i promise you. If you have uneaten food, you are very low on your cuc, and with the eel in there..... Upwards battle imho. Your lighting is fine on the positive side but, yes the but, those fish are going to die. This is like putting you in a small room with a couple of lions and giving you a blanket to protect yourself. Keep in mind, this room is not a bathroom so when you crap yourself with your new enviroment, it will stay with you. I would consider to stop posting on the subject if your not planning on changing anything because everyone is giving you the exact same advice. Right now you are searching for a different reason why your fish arent getting along beside the fact your tank is to small for the fish and or those fish are to aggressive for eachother. Have you even changed your filtration system? Good luck man, you are gonna need it! :-)
 
I agree. I feel like my cuc is weak. 4 crabs, 2 of which I barely see, and 1 shrimp. No snails or what not. So what is the appropriate number of cuc members? I see kits online I could order but they include like 20 snails and 20 hermit crabs. isn't that way too much for my tank?

Mario, I appreciate your bluntness, but please take it down a notch. I came here for help and advice, not to be scolded. I am doing my best, as the thread stated, I am a beginner and learning as I go. One resource I consulted said changing the landscape of the tank can help reduce territorial agression so I tried that. I dont have more sand yet so I can't change it. I dont have other filtration so I can't change it. I stopped adding fish and now im trying to be sure everyone is happy and healthy. I'm not sure why you assume they are super agressive. 90% of the day they swim side by side. And the eel hasn't eaten anything, let alone anybody. I'm doing my best, man.
 
It really all depends. You need to watch your cal and mag when adding snails. They need them to grow or they will just die. I dont even know how many snails are in my tank, but they do just keep breeding like rabbit snails. When i first entered this fourm i asked the same question and i listened. I crashed my tank before it even got started with the amount i was told to put in. The problem comes in when they die, usually in tanks starting up and if you dont have enough hermits, you will see a huge spike in trates. I would only add at max 15 different cuc at this point and see where you go from there. It is a giant domino effect, everything will go really good or really bad and that is what your watching for
 
alright, that makes sense. I'll continue to monitor the stats and researching a cuc. I will probably make another purchase at the end of next week.

I observed the eel out tonight, clear of his normal cave. the other fish gave him a wide birth, but if they came near he would recoil. very interesting to watch.
 
My eel has become very active in the last few days, however everyone that can be accounted for is accounted for. He has been hunting at night, finding new holes to camp in. He was still hunting at 7am this morning when I got up to turn on the lights. I threw in the daily cube of frozen and as it seperated and floated to the bottom I observed him snatch up anything that came his way, even going so far as to search the food out. I believe he has grown alot since I brought him home. he was about 12 inches, now atleast 15. I saw him span the tank this morning but never saw his tail. I got a few nice pictures that I will probably post later today.
 
Eel commited his first confirmed murder. I watched him snatch and munch the sailfin tang. I was quite sad. However, it was bound to happen. The tangs defense was to spread his fins and turn at an angle to be as big as possible. well, the eel can't see and thus didnt care. it was not pretty to watch. Next day I shifted all the rocks again taking special precautions to creat larger caves, small caves, and no true corners. I replaced the tang with a few damsels and a couple cromis. I picked them becuase of their size and speed. hopefully they will fair as well as everyone else.
 
New picture from the tank adjustment this weekend. I had my first murder in the tank and made some adjustments. I stacked the rock to make some smaller caves that the big fish can't get into. I also tried to make it so that the eel can't ambush people. Tank currently consists of:
1 black domino damsel
2 spotted maroon damsels
1 large pink and yellow damsel
2 blue green cromis
... 1 prehistoric tomato clown
1 spotted puffer
1 scooter blenny
1 snow flake eel
1 cleaner shrimp
1 emerald crab that I can find
and 2 seriously overworked hermit crabs.
 
how big is your snowflake?!?! usually they wont eat anything that's bigger than the mouth and a sailfin should've been much larger than that eel.. lol and why do you have a sailfin in a 40 gal???
 
You didn't give the sailfin much room to escape either way...wait to upgrade your tank to at least a 180and then get your sailfin :D At least he'll have plenty of room to escape or avoid the eel altogether.
 
I agree, the sailfin was not a great idea. He was very small at only about 3in but never ran from any of the fish including the eel, he would only span his fins to look larger.

Eel right now is about 15in. The eel has taken to the habbit of chasing the other fish away from the frozen cube and then trying to swollow it whole. This morning I actually threw a second cube in the tank because the eel ate the cube before it could even break apart, feeding the other fish as well.

The tank is a 56 gallon, of course there is still rock and sand and such, but the fish I picked out tend to school. the little guys stick together and the bigger guys trade spots through out the day. It doesnt look like a lot of fish in the tank to me. The only one that looks out of place is the tomato clown, which was a rehoming from friend at work.

Next, I want to get a solid cuc to better tend to the rocks and sand. kits that I have seen from places like www.liveaquaria.com suggest 50-60 snails and hermit crabs for my size tank. is that many really necessary? I know with as many fish as I have there will be a good bit of waste and I want to be sure the natural and mechanical elements of the tank can process it all.
 
Things have been going well. No illness, no spikes, no wierd growths. I change 10% water weekly and that has been going well. I am using tapwater with conditioner for changes which I think is limiting my tanks progression. I get a good bit of brown algea and diatoms after the water change so I have been thinking about investing in an RODI system, but I didnt realize they wasted so much water. What would a good alternative be? Any suggestions?

I went to visit a new LFS and they had a fish I have only seen in one other aquarium, and that was the South Carolina Aquarium in Charleston! I had to have it. The store owner said it would be fine as far as size and tank mates goes atleast until I upgrade at a later date. He did warn me that it was poisonous and would kill my tank off, should it die! SCARY! Wish me luck, people. 3 days, all good so far.
New Additions: Longhorn Cowfish (box fish), and psychedelic mandarin goby.
Old folks in tank: black domino damsel, really old tomato clown, one medium damsel, one small damsel (one was eaten by the eel), one puffer, one scooter blenny, two blue/green cromis, one snow flake eel, one cleaner shrimp, at least one really well hidden emerald crab.







 

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