72g reef inhabitants

[rottn]

My royal gramma and giant Hawaiian FD in the background. You'll have to excuse the blurry shot of Dory. You know... my hippo was always called "Mr. Hippo" until Finding Nemo came out. Now, EVERYBODY always calls the hippo "Dory" including my kids! I've fallen into the trap! :eek1: :rolleyes:

[Michael_Lambert]

LOL,

Same here everyone keeps calling Both my Clowns "Neemo".. lol

[rottn]

My yellow watchman goby and tiger pistol shrimp pair. I love these guys! Except when the shrimp is trying to pull my frag (that's mounted on a clam shell) into their burrow for reinforcement! :eek1:

I think I've arranged the tank around so that he won't do it anymore though (fingers crossed).

[rottn]

My clam. This picture SOOOOO doesn't do my clam justice. It's just so much more beautifully coloured than the pic shows. It looks almost drab in this pic.

Since this picture, the clam has been moved up onto one of my rocks. It seems to be doing well. The "gape" seen in this pic is pretty much gone. Looks much happier these days. :D

[rottn]

My torch coral, with my bangaii (who never seems to stray far from the torch) and my cleaners.

[rottn]

My 2 leather frags (umbrella and finger), with a piece of my open brain that snuck into the picture. Notice my royal gramma peeking from the back with my FD. :D

[Red-Sea]

Looking good Mary, finally started to post some pics ha... ;)

[rottn]

My birdsnest frag. :D

[rottn]

One of my latest acquisitions - my candycane frag (under actinics). :D

[rottn]

And finally, the left side of the tank...

LOL Mike - yep, I've got a Dory, and a Neemo, and a Marlin. It's tough to try and explain to the little ones that Marlin is actually a girl! hehehe

Dany - thanks! I wasn't sure about posting pics because my tanks have SO far to go to even begin to approach what most of you have already put together. But, as I collect more and more corals, I'm actually starting to be a very proud "mama". :D

Mind you, it's still nothing compared to most of you... but it's getting there slowly. ;)

[rottn]

Oh, just one more please? Just found this one of my open brain under actinics. :D

[Sohal Tang]

Mary, your candycane under the actinics is BLUUUUU TEE FUL!! hehehehehehehhe :roflmao: :D

Very nice set up..... :)
Tell me more about the pistol and watchman...
How long you had em? what is their behavior like?
Do they scrap with anyone? How much digging does the pistol do? Any down sides to the pair?

Thanks for posting the pics!

Tim
:rockon:

[ajx22]

Lookin VERY good Mary!!!

You have come a LONG way in a very short time!

Congrat's!!!

[rottn]

Thanks Tim and AJ. :D

Tim - I've had the goby/shrimp pair for... oh... I'd say about 6 - 8 mos now. They are the coolest critters to watch! The pistol works non-stop at building/maintaining the burrow. He's constantly digging away (uses his front claws like a shovel). It's neat. And the goby is forever keeping a vigilant watch at the entrance of the burrow. The only time he'll leave is when I feed the tank. Then he'll come up a short distance to grab a piece of food. But never too far!

When the shrimp is out, you can actually see the goby signalling him to get back into the burrow if one of the other fish is too near the burrow. Also, when I feed the tank, the shrimp will sometimes come out (probably senses the food). The goby will tell him (with a swoosh of the tail) to "get back in the house"! I'm not sure if that's because he's protecting the shrimp from potential fish coming down too close while feeding, or if he's protecting his share of the food from the shrimp. LOL

As far as downsides to owning a comical pair such as this... you need to make sure your rock is very secure, because the shrimp will dig tunnels right under the rock. If you like a nice flat SB - forget it! These guys will make a mess of your SB. Also, it appears that my shrimp might be a snail killer. Not 100% sure, but when I rearranged my tank the other day, found about 5 or 6 astrea shells in his burrow... and I know I only added 2 empty shells. I do know that one of the snails died, so that accounts for 3 shells. Maybe the other 2 or 3 also died and he just utilized the shell (and probably the food!) I think that's probably what it is, because as I said, I've had the pair for quite some time now, and I've got a whole lot of snails, so 2 or 3 isn't so bad. And finally, I understand that the shrimp and goby will eat critters they find in the SB, which I guess isn't a great thing to a lot of people, but on the other hand... they utilize such a small corner of the tank that I can't imagine it's having a great detrimental effect on my system.

I've never seen them scrap with any of my other fish/critters. They prefer to run and hide! :)

I love my goby/shrimp pair, and I personally have no regrets adding them, and would do it again in a second! :D

[Mckitrick]

Could you keep a Goby/Pistol Shrimp pair in a 12Gallon Nano tank?

[rottn]

I believe you can but am not sure. I knew somebody that kept a 5g nano with a shrimp/goby combo. Actually, this is the person that inspired me to try out a pair. :D However, I've not seen this person around on the boards in quite some time, so don't know if they still have the pair or not.

On the other hand... Liveaquaria.com says 30g is the minimum for a yellow watchman goby.

From watching my pair though... they never, ever stray far from their home - so from my personal experience, I would put a pair into a 12g if I was to ever set one up.

I guess it's your call. :D

HTH