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damn hermits

I have a lot of mixed questions here, so I'm hoping you almighty, experienced aquariests can help! :notworth: :old:

1)Do you think the hermits are doing it for the margaritas' shell?
They don't bother the mcuch larger turbos at all, just the smaller margaritas. I now have two dead, and one live margarita, the bristle worms are having a field day on the dead ones, and the hermits are in a net breader.
2) Should I leave the snails in the tank?
3) What should I do with the hermits?
4) If I got some shells, would they stop eating my snails?
5) Im going to my LFS tomorrow, should I buy 2 more hermits to replace the margaritas, and stick with turbos as the only snails?

That brings me to my second point, Im going to my LFS tomorrow to get my first fish/shrimp here's the list of the fish they have http://blueribbonkoi.com/stocklists/brkstocklist.pdf
6) What should I get?
I have a 12 gallon fish tank with pH-8 Ammonia-0 Nitrite-0 Nitrate-30 Salinity-1.025, and it has been cycleing for ~5 weeks. I was hoping to get a shrimp and a small fish (lawnmover blenny or a goby, and a golden coral banded or pistol shrimp)
7) Would this be alright for now, and what should I feed them?
 
I would hold off on decorative shrimp for awhile yet as the more attractive ones tend to be sensative to fluctuations (particularly in PH). The pistol may be OK but are you sure you want one? They can be noisy and upset most tank critters with their rapid jetting around the tank. I have a banded that I am very fond of but would wait to put this kind in the aquarium, under no circumstances should you try the Fire shrimp at this point.

Do you have algae growing to feed a blenny? You are likely to have to supplement its diet in such a small tank so be careful to watch that it has enough food. Generally speaking, your first critters should be something you can feed and not something that relys wholely on the new tank for food (which will also help build up your bacteria).

As an aside, any of the coco (feather duster) worms make an attractive addition, come in many colors, are very hardy, are easy to feed and the only preditor I know of is an arrow crab.

Mithrax crabs come in red and green and are interesting to watch. They eat primarily algae and do a good job at getting into small places that are otherwise hard to clean. In the smaller tanks I seem to only have success keeping one and I tend to wonder if they attack each other when they molt (the smallest always seems to be the survivor when I have put multiples in a smaller tank).

I hope this helps making your first choices. Remember - nothing good happens quickly in a saltwater aquarium.
 
L8 2 RISE;114295 said:
I have a lot of mixed questions here, so I'm hoping you almighty, experienced aquariests can help! :notworth: :old:

1)Do you think the hermits are doing it for the margaritas' shell?
They don't bother the mcuch larger turbos at all, just the smaller margaritas. I now have two dead, and one live margarita, the bristle worms are having a field day on the dead ones, and the hermits are in a net breader.
2) Should I leave the snails in the tank?
3) What should I do with the hermits?
4) If I got some shells, would they stop eating my snails?
5) Im going to my LFS tomorrow, should I buy 2 more hermits to replace the margaritas, and stick with turbos as the only snails?

That brings me to my second point, Im going to my LFS tomorrow to get my first fish/shrimp here's the list of the fish they have http://blueribbonkoi.com/stocklists/brkstocklist.pdf
6) What should I get?
I have a 12 gallon fish tank with pH-8 Ammonia-0 Nitrite-0 Nitrate-30 Salinity-1.025, and it has been cycleing for ~5 weeks. I was hoping to get a shrimp and a small fish (lawnmover blenny or a goby, and a golden coral banded or pistol shrimp)
7) Would this be alright for now, and what should I feed them?

You need to add more shells. Yes, the hermits are killing the snails for their shells because they are outgrowing the ones they have, so, if you have empty shells they won't have to go to the trouble of killing a snail for a new one.
Lawnmower Blennies get big for a 12 gallon, need lots of rock to graze on. A Bicolor Blenny might be a better choice. Pistol Shrimp and a sand sifting goby would be neat.
Mysis! Frozen mysis.
 
when my tank is "full", how many hermits and turbo snails should I have to work as my clean up crew? And with the lawnmower blenny, some of the articles I have read say they also eat bristle worms which my tank must have at least 25-30 of. And this is probably a silly question, but what about a mandarin goby, do you think I could try one? if it was already eating frozen food, it wouldn't be too hard, would it?
 
1)Maybe. Its known to happen for the shell or for food. It is also possible the snail died and the hermit then ate it.
2)Depends if you actually saw the hermit eat the live snail or not.
3) See number 2
4) Maybe.
5) That is a personal preference. :biggrin2:
6) Couldn't open the PDF.

:smile:
 
I wouldn't try a mandarin goby at all. I have a 12 gallon tank at my work. I have 3 Snails and 3 Hermits. I have a 1" Stars and Stripes Puffer, a 1" Clown Fish and a 5" Snowflake Eel. I would not reccomend anything more then a couple very small fish for a 12 gallon. If you are not a very experienced marine fish keeper the tank could go south in no time. I would look into getting some kind of skimmer on the tank as well. Also, make sure you do 10-20% water changed weekly on this tank. The most important things in nano tank are good live rock, water changes and low bio load.
 

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