Livestock in a 5g pico reef?

[STiTCH87]

So as some of you now know, I have set up a 5g pico tank.
It's an ecoxotic ecopico reef edition tank.

I already plan to add a peppermint shrimp, a small breed snail (not sure what breed),
and a few small hermits (probably the blue legged as IIRC they stay smaller)

But I just wanted feedback on what you guys would personally put into a 5g that'd keep it stable. I was thinking my only fish would be a clown goby. Opinions? If I had to guess i'd say there's roughly 3 gallons of actual water, with the other 2 gallons of space being taken up by sand, rock, and equipment. There's 13 pounds of live rock in there and a 3.5" deep aragonite sand bed.

Oh and sidenote, I now have a new avatar, so some people may get thrown off not knowing this is me because I know many are used to seeing the purple hornet photo, but I figured a photo of something I actually own would be more appropriate lol.

 

[pillowfish]

Perhaps a yasha goby and sexy shrimp, that would be my choice for livestock.

 

[STiTCH87]

Yeah I was contemplating a goby/shrimp pair too and I love the yasha goby, but IDK if I want to put that much money into a fish in a 5g if i'm not positive how well the 5g will survive. IDK the though of a pico kinda scares me and if god forbid I lost a $50 fish i'd be devastated. Ofcourse, any fish would make me sad, but especially the harder to find more expensive ones.

Do you all think it'd be generally easy and ok to keep a yasha in a 5g with a shrimp as long as I do a 1g water change every week? I plan to do 2 waterchanges a week, each one at 1/2 a gallon. Every single week. And I plan to feed only pellet to keep waste from food down.

 

[JTM4UG]

one nano clown, they have them sometimes at skiptons

 

[STiTCH87]

A nano clown? What is a nano clown? That's a new term to me.

IDK if I believe their existence since there's really no documentation out there about their existence.
Are you sure they aren't just baby occ clowns?

 

[The Ng Thing]

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+2124+1728&pcatid=1728

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+2124+1144&pcatid=1144

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+2124+155&pcatid=155

The red stripe or greenbanded would be my first choices. The catalina, I'm not so sure. LiveAquaria has them at 2" but I've read elsewhere that they would need a bigger tank.

 

[STiTCH87]

I do like the greenband goby, but I have a personal relationship with yellow clown goby and IDK how well they'd do together.

 

[The Ng Thing]

Aside from clown gobies, those are the ones I tend to see the most in LFS's in my area without having to special order them. I'd be a little weary of ordering such a small guy online.

 

[STiTCH87]

That's a good point. Well I see hi-fin and yasha all the time but again, being so expensive, scares me.

 

[SteveDola]

randalls gobys are nice. I would get a goby and maybe a pearly jawfish(depends on sandbed depth). Although a 6line wrasse are neat fish and stay smallish.

Clowns in nanos are so passe.

 

[SteveDola]

[url]http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+2124+155&pcatid=155

The red stripe or greenbanded would be my first choices. The catalina, I'm not so sure. LiveAquaria has them at 2" but I've read elsewhere that they would need a bigger tank.

Catalina gobys require a low temp tank. So Stitch would have to rethink his entire tank...not impossible but going cold water species specific takes research.

 

[jfourn83]

Pygmy possum wrasse

 

[inverted]

Pygmy possum wrasse

These are very cool, but tough to find these days for some reason. Small gobies and blennies are probably the best bet. A catalina gobby could work, as it wouldbn't take much of a chiller to chill such a small tank; depending on the ambient temp, you could possibly even get away with an Ice Probe chiller. It would be cool, as you don't see them in captivity often, however, other livestock would be limited.

 

[jfourn83]

Theres a Pygmy wrasse on divers den right now lol

 

[inverted]

Theres a Pygmy wrasse on divers den right now lol

Man you guys are tough LOL. DD, heck I would call Interruptus Angelfish hard to find, but there are two now on DD

 

[Yanni]

hey bud got your text last night but was tied up at a game. I have not yet plumbed the sump so not sure if the clown goby is lurking in my sump right now. Also i will make a few small frags for ya, no problem. Also i think a nice niger trigger of sohal tang would be good for your tank

 

[STiTCH87]

I would love to put one of those in my tank Yanni lol but i'd be short 70 gallons to accomodate one lol.

randalls gobys are nice. I would get a goby and maybe a pearly jawfish(depends on sandbed depth). Although a 6line wrasse are neat fish and stay smallish.

Clowns in nanos are so passe.

Some spots are 3" and the rest is up to 4"

 

[Edward]

Go with some cooler inverts, I got rid of the barnacle blenny in my 5g today and put him in one of my other tanks. I thought focusing on inverts and corals would be a lot nicer than having fish =)

 

[Yanni]

how bout takin a shot aT some nice non photosynthetic corals? Smallenough tank to spot feed..and with the led they would look nice. Just an idea, i have never done it but seen some awsome small NPS tanks.

 

[STiTCH87]

NPS corals are too much work for me right now. Partly why I broke down the 29g. I want a low-maintenance tank for now. And I would go all inverts and corals, and basically I am. But with such small fish I wanna keep that produce such little waste, adding one shouldn't make any difference as long as I have a CUC to keep up with it.