Interior Designing

[andysgirl8800]

I did a major interior redesign of my fuge about 3 days ago. Previously, there were no critters other than the pods, worms and brittle stars that were living in the very sad little clump of chaeto. This was the before:

I did a careful cleaning of the surface of the sand to remove detrius, dead pieces of chaeto, and bad algae. I added a new piece of chaeto, more live rock, 17 hermits, and 5 turbos. And this is the after:

Here is my question. I also added a teeny tiny little dragon goby, "MJ" to help sift the surface of the sand and help prevent detrius build up. She's only an inch long.

Considering this is the first time I've had a fishy in my fuge in a year, will MJ be alright feeding off the pods and other critters already in there? Or should I supplement with mysis and other foods?

 

[dcantucson]

I would supplement it's feeding 1-2 times a week, however I don't believe it would be necessary.

 

[wontonflip]

Nice cleanup job! How big is your fuge? If you see your fish eating the pods, you should be fine, but maybe you could feed him once a week or so. I know Yote, I think, feeds his tank once in a while only because there are so many pods. If you have enough pods in there, just check to see if your fish is eating them.

 

[andysgirl8800]

It's hard to see if she's eating them because she's so small and she takes mouthfuls of sand, presumably with critters in it. The fuge chamber holds approximately 10 gallons on its own. The entire sump has a 40g capacity, but runs at half volume normally. The additional volume is my emergency pump failure tank overflow contingency. :)

 

[yote]

Thats not a fuge.Thats a DISPLAY tank :D
Wonton is right.My fish just get fed once a month if their lucky.But their fat,healthy,and happy.
I think theres probably enough in your fuge for that goby to munch on for now.But she'll wipe out the life thats in the sand bed pretty quick in a fuge that small.So you'll have to feed her.

 

[andysgirl8800]

No worries! I just didn't want to get too comfortable thinking she'd have enough in there all by herself. I'll feed sparingly once a week, I think.

 

[winyfrog]

Just my 2 cents, I would avoid putting anything in my fug that will eat my pods. She will as yote mentioned wipe them out pretty quickly. Then if you want to keep any type of animal that depends on them it will make it difficult for you to keep them healthy.

 

[andysgirl8800]

Appreciate the feedback about the pods, Winy. I don't have plans for anything that will require them as of yet, and if I did plan on a pod-dependent critter, I'd take MJ outta the fuge and reseed/repopulate it with the pods again. At the moment, I am more concerned with lowering my overall nitrates and getting a handle on my rampant algae growth.