Shrimp

[Pixburgh]

Tank will be a 40 gallon breeder, below are a list of future inhabitants that you all have helped me prepare.

1 Bubble Coral
1 Bubble Tip Anemone
1 Feather Duster (green/yellow)
1 Yellow Leather Soft Coral
1 Green Star Polyp (only if we can account for a separate piece of rock for it, if not.. it's out)

1 Coral Banded Shrimp
1 Tiger Pistol Shrimp
2-3 Nassarius Vibex Snails
1 Orange spotted Goby
2 Ocellaris Clownfish
1 Royal Gramma
1 Yellow watchman Goby
1 Blue Reef Chromis
1 Zebra Barred Dartfish

My questions are:
1) I've been looking into cleaner shrimp but I don't want to overload my tank so what are your opinions on swapping out the Coral Banded Shrimp for a Fire shrimp?
*I'm fascinated by symbiotic relationships so I tried to incorporate several different ones in my list *

2) We have previously discussed adding the clowns to my tank first due to their heavy bio load. Are they first even before the CUC? If not, how many of those do I add to the DT at a time? (Same rule of thumb of one per month like the fish?)

 

[Dalmatia]

Orange spotted and yellow goby might fight, dart fish and chromis do better in pairs as do the blood shrimp.
I'd go with some skunk shrimp cause they don't hide as much. Fire/blood shrimp hide a lot.
Don't add any fish unless your ammonia and nitrites are 0
You can add your clowns and inverts at the same time, but would do the fish first to see if your tank is ready for the bio load of the fish. If it's not and you have a little ammonia spike you might kill the shrimp

 

[Pixburgh]

Darn, here I thought I had a finished list lol. Thanks for the advice. So scratch the yellow goby and dartfish (I was worried i'd never see it in my tank anyway). What about some sort of flasher wrasse?

 

[Trex]

I would skip the coral banded shrimp -- they get fairly aggressive, even more so in a "small" tank. In addition, don't see it and the pistol shrimp getting along too well.

I haven't been successful with keeping any other shrimp with my tiger pistol in my 40 breeder.

Wouldn't add the E. quadricolor (( or any anemone for that matter )) for 6 months after the tank is set up.

Personally, I wouldn't put a flasher wrasse into a 40.

 

[cpayne015]

i would leave the coral banded off and add the cleaner shrimp.....it would be one of the last items i add ensurng my tank is ready for it as the anemone...i would pick one or the other with gobies

 

[cpayne015]

chromi would be the first added as they are pretty hardy

 

[Pixburgh]

Works for me, flasher is out. Do you think I could add a blue reef with a blue/green one? (cyaneus & viridis). I've looked everywhere for an answer but can't seem to find one. Below would be my new inhabitant list with all of your suggestions considered.

2 Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
1 Tiger Pistol Shrimp
2-3 Nassarius Vibex Snails

1 Orange spotted Goby
2 Ocellaris Clownfish
1 Royal Gramma
1 Blue Reef Chromis
1 Blue/Green Reef Chromis

I've read that shrimp need iodine to help with molting. Is this something I will need to supplement in the water or will a salt mix take care of that for me? If not, any suggestions on brands you've had success with?

 

[Dalmatia]

Your better off putting in 2 or more of the same chromis as they also do better in pairs and will get other shy fish out more often
For the shrimp you should be fine just keeping up with water changes

 

[Pixburgh]

Noted. Have any opinions on pajama cardinals? I'm more likely to go the chromi route anyway but just thought i'd ask

 

[Dalmatia]

Pj is ok, also a schooler,,, but personally I think the blue chromis are the most beautiful out of them.

 

[Trex]

Works for me, flasher is out. Do you think I could add a blue reef with a blue/green one? (cyaneus & viridis). I've looked everywhere for an answer but can't seem to find one. Below would be my new inhabitant list with all of your suggestions considered.

2 Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
1 Tiger Pistol Shrimp
2-3 Nassarius Vibex Snails

1 Orange spotted Goby
2 Ocellaris Clownfish
1 Royal Gramma
1 Blue Reef Chromis
1 Blue/Green Reef Chromis

I've read that shrimp need iodine to help with molting. Is this something I will need to supplement in the water or will a salt mix take care of that for me? If not, any suggestions on brands you've had success with?

Personally, I would skip the Chromis, they have a tendency to pick each other off until there is one left.

If you do regular water changes, there is no need for iodine supplements. In addition, iodine tests aren't all that accurate, and too much can cause more issue than it solves.