29 gallon Bio cube

[matoska]

My clown fish must have seen the movie he jumped into the filter. And I think the 10 inch anemone eat my banded shrimp. Any how I have a brain coral and mushrooms, emeral crab feather dusters, fire scallops, Blenney, sand sifter star to name a few. I was thinking of a couple or three new clown fish and some pepermint shrimp.

Question? How many clowns should I go with and how many shrimp. (I do not want to buy shrimp every week unless I am eating them) What is the best shrimp to get? I have been told the pepermint shrimp will keep the feather duster population in check. Is that true?

 

[Brian5000]

A pair of clowns will do fine in your tank. More than a pair will fight and kill each other. It seems to work best if one clown is smaller than the other so there will be a clear heirarchy defined between the two.

Peppermint shrimp are mostly for aptasia anemone outbreaks and offer little or no asthetic value due to the fact that they hide a lot. The featherdusters are kinda a non-issue. Lots of things eat those, and while one may get population explosions, they (or at least mine) seem to be transient.

Other shrimp to consider:
blood shrimp hide a lot in reef lighting.
Coral banded shrimp are good but territorial (only get one), and it may become an opportunistic predator.
Scarlet skunk shrimp are peaceful and social. One can get 1-2 shrimp for that size tank.

On another note:
sand sifting starfish will outgrow your tank eventually (though if it's small you might get a couple years out of it). It eats up a lot of useful critters in the sand too.
I think the average life span of a flame scallop in an aquarium is 6 months due to the fact that appropriate food is very difficult to provide in an aquarium.

 

[matoska]

What is the food for the flame scollops?