Inverts and bio-load?

[Anonymous]

I know that I dont want to put 20 shrimp in my 60 gal tank. But how much do starfish, crabs and shrimp effect the load. I have a tang and a clown. I also have a brittle star, arrow crab, peppermint shrimp and a banded shrimp. I would like to get a couple of cleaner shrimp and some more stars. And....lobsters? Are any of them going to stay small enough to put in my tank. I saw some "mini" lobsters on MDL's site.

 

[Will C1]

remember they all will get big. and feeding them you will put a strain on the system. if you plan on beefing up youre system and only adding only them no more fish. you should be fine.

 

[gobi 1]

Most of those animals are second hand feeders, meanig that they need something else to eat first and then excrete or shed some of that stuff they ate. Could run into problems feeding that many critters. Maybe just a few.




gobi 1

 

[Rich-n-poor]

These are all negative bio-load IMO in other words they tend to remove unwanted detris from the tank. For example stars eat detris and algea. The problem you will run into will be twofold:

First these animals all will need a sufficent bio-load of fish producing a sufficent amout of waste to supply food for the algea and microscopic organisms they eat.

Second they all compete for basically the same food source i.e microscopic organisms in your tank. They will deplete the supply of these and then all die.

Your problem is actually the opposite of what you think for example lets say you had new tank with tons of algea in it which you want rid of. So you add 50 snails. Next thing you know the algea is gone but only enough of it grows daily to feed 10 snails. so you end up with 40 dead snails get the picture ?

Heres the solution : First the coral banded is agressive shrimp and will probably kill the cleaners frankly im suprised he hasnt killed the peppermint. If you want to keep him you are pretty maxed out on shrimp.

Sencond :Stars require a significant amout of volumn to support them 1 in a 60 gallon is about right but if you have to add another make it a different type of star that wont compete for the same food sources perhaps a linka

Third : diversify a lobster may be nice you dont have anything similar so it may do just fine

Finally as you add invertabrates add an occasional fish to produce the waste they consume but do it all slowly maybe 1 thing evry 6 weeks

hth rich
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[Anonymous]

Rich,

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond in such detail. Right now, my "cleaning crew" consists of 6 turbo snails and about 6 hermits. I have a decent (more than I like) amount of brown algae on the glass and sand.

I did start out with 2 peppermints. I found one of them dead. He was in good shape, so I never suspected MURDER. Thanks for the info on the banded.


I would like very much to one day get a mandarin. But I have read that your tank needs to be very well established first. True? And will having another star, the linka and the lobster effect my ability to support the mandarin.

I plan on adding some more fish. I just dont knowfor sure what to add.

 

[Will C1]

the lobster is a scavenger i dont believe they eat coco pods which is all my mandarin will eat, im not shure about the linkia either, i do know how ever that i have a huge coral banded shrimp(about the size of youre index finger) and a big cleaner shrimp(close to same size) as well as 2 peppermints, and they do fine together but i have a 90 gal packed with rock. i dont know what youre tank consists of. as for a mandarian i find you would have better luck if you chose another species of dragonette. for example i have a scotter blenny he has the same body as a mandarin even a huge back fin but his color is like the sand he's very neat to watch and he will eat anything i put in the tank wether it be coco pods or pelletts or mysis shrimp. also if alge is a big problem i added a red lipped alge blenny to my tank to help out the snails and he works just great and he looks cool.