newbie's 20gallon

[kilo]

hey guys figured id show you guys my tank....
20 gallon glass, a aquaclear 50, dual lamp T5 HO light, 240 powerhead

x1 zebra damsel x1 yellowtail damsel x1 ??? pink fish x1 cleaner shrimp x2 hermit crab x3 bumblebee snail +10 snails x1 emerald crab x1 ricordea x2 orange mushroom coral, + a small army of amphipods, several colonies of zoas... unfortunatly i used to have 2 yellowtail damsels, one was killed today :(

anyone know what kind this is?

what do you guys think?

 

[little_fish]

Cute tank! The pink fish a purple pseudochromis.

Damsels are some of the meanest fish you can buy this hobby and having several in a small tank is recipe for disaster with those guys. I think you will find they will kill each other off until you are left with the biggest, ugliest and meanest left. But you really should have two maybe 3 fish in that tank at most, so I would just leave them be.

I love that emerald crab pic too btw!

 

[kilo]

i kinda wanna get rid of the damsels.... would clownfish be ok?

 

[little_fish]

a pair of clown fish would do great in your tank!

 

[kilo]

i wouldnt need a protein skimmer? the guy at the LFS said therye too delicate.. and without an anemone?

 

[little_fish]

no need for an nem, there is no guarantee that they would be hosted anyways, plus I doubt your lights are good enough to keep one anyways.

And you can definitely run a skimmer on your tank, I cant think of a single creature that would be damaged by running a skimmer. However, I wouldnt buy a skimmer from your LFS. Ive never seen a LFS carry a quality skimmer. You are much better buying one online. A great brand of skimmers are the reef octopus skimmers, and you want to get one rated for twice your system volume. Be wary of cheap skimmers, they are, well, cheap.

But on a small tank like you have, regular water changes are good enough to keep your water parameters in check.

 

[Amba]

Purple psuedo are awesome I have one they have such personality!

 

[Smitty]

Nice looking tank you have.

 

[Eissie]

Oh about you possible clowns, my clown hosts my xenia! And they are no where the trouble a nem is. Just saying. :D

 

[kilo]

is it possible they would host the ricordea? :)

 

[little_fish]

yep! they can be hosted by all sorts of things, mine are hosted by the overflow box :(

 

[kilo]

cool! i cant wait to get the clownfish in there! i gotta get rid of those damsels :/

 

[Burch01]

One of my new clowns has taken a liking to the whole left side of my internal overflow and runs the other one off when he gets close.

 

[kilo]

so im going to the LFS tomorrow or saturday... im gonna get rid of the damels, and get a pair of clowns... anyone have any opinions on anything to get?
soo far...
2 clowns
1 turbo
any ideas?

 

[little_fish]

looks like a good purchase plan! Good luck getting those damsels!

 

[kilo]

haha theyre really gonna be a trouble, my friend has a 115 and he says hes been trying to get rid of his zebra for 2 years and counting.. any techniques out there for getting them?

 

[justanotherfishhead]

I had to catch 3 damsels out of my 55. I bought two big nets, tried to trick them with food, ended up taking all the rocks out anyway. Just be glad you don't have as many rocks as I did. I think two nets definitely helps though. Good luck!

 

[kilo]

ok thanks. maybe ill just take out the rocks, just a lil' worried about the zoa's not attached yet and me disturbing them....

 

[justanotherfishhead]

Leaving the one rock with the zoas in there shouldn't make it to too hard to catch them. Just get them into the corner.

 

[little_fish]

I would start feeding them out of the net, do that for a few weeks and then one day at dinner, just scoop them out.