# A good starting thing for a 10 gallon salt tank? (fish only)



## resRfun (Aug 26, 2007)

My tank has been cycling for a total of 3 days now, and for the next 2 weeks im deciding what should I put in the tank? Its too small for alot of coral, so i guess it should be a fish only tank. Im willing to put in snails, shrimp and crabs too.

Are there any basic, easy starting "thing" i can put in my 10 gal salt tank?


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## Puffer (Jul 6, 2007)

I would put in some small pieces of Live Rock.It will help out with your Filtration.

Carl.


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## resRfun (Aug 26, 2007)

the guys at my local seaaquarium store told me i could wait a few weeks for the rocks.... but do i really have to? 

And does coral only grow on live rock? or can it grow on some kind of resin decor that i have?

thanks


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## Cody (Dec 22, 2007)

Corals too big for a 10G? Most softies can easily be kept in a 10G with the proper light. Check out MattD's old thread, and I plan on keeping a 10G reef. If anything gets too big, you can frag and sell.

Live rock helps a ton with filtration. It makes up 1/3 of your filtration. It also looks a lot better when you have LR. Yes, you can wait a few weeks, but in the end, it helps a lot.


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## resRfun (Aug 26, 2007)

cool, that changes alot, i guess i might have some soft corals in my tank. Its been 4 days of cycling, would it be OK if i bought a few live rocks now and put em in?


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## Cody (Dec 22, 2007)

Yes. It would help your cycle as well because you will most likely have some sort of die-off.

But, to house corals, you need good lighting. 10,000k with Actinic and Daylight lights, with at least 3 watts per gallon. More is better. I am having 9.6 watts per gallon on my 10G.


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## resRfun (Aug 26, 2007)

hey just got some live rock, came with a couple small snails, and a couple wierdo 4 armed worm/starfish thing... I saw it crawling around my rocks.
Would it be bad to keep it there and let it grow? it is barely visible. approx 1cm-4cm long.

Is it a bad parasite? would crabs and shrimp find it?

There are also some little worms that are black and white.... they tend to stay onto one spot of the rock


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## Cody (Dec 22, 2007)

You got some hitchhikers.  Some are good, and others are bad. Most are good, though.

The snails should be good. There are, however, a couple of bad snails that wil leat corals.
The starfish thin you mentioned sounds like a Brittle Star. Long arms with "hairs" growing out? That would be fine. If it is something different, tell us. That will help clean up algea and other nasty things.
Little worms, and stays in one spot? Does it have a "flowery" appearence to it?


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## herefishy (Dec 14, 2006)

Cody said:


> Corals too big for a 10G? Most softies can easily be kept in a 10G with the proper light. Check out MattD's old thread, and I plan on keeping a 10G reef. If anything gets too big, you can frag and sell.


Be careful, some corals are restricted. They can be sold with a license, but not otherwise. The may be traded or given away, however. Even an old FW guy like me, knows that. lol I believe that TFH once printed a list of those corals that are restricted along with those that are not legal to possess. I will try to find that list. I tried googling it and came up empty. Will keep trying there, too.


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## resRfun (Aug 26, 2007)

UPDATE ****

Alright, most of the worms do stay in one spot, but ive seen only one with a flowery thingy on it. The worms that do not have the flowery thing but do stay in place are white and black.

Ive seen some kind of "scaly" purple snail, some black smooth ones, a small sea urchine in a crevice of one of the rocks, a sponge, some REALLY SMALL shrimp looking like things, some "centipede" things, a thing that looks like a rolly polly (fast, runs around, looks like it has armor, greyish brownish) and a worm that apparently got on the sand somehow....

Those are the things i have currently found in my batch of rocks, i wish i could take pictures of these, but my camera doesnt focus enough to catch them.

EDIT: and ive seen some other micro small things that do NOT look like shrimp...

thanks


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## Puffer (Jul 6, 2007)

The Last ones you Menchend Sounds Like Copods which are very beneficial. Yeh you got some Hitchhikers Alright :wink:


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## MattD (Apr 25, 2007)

Umm, there are a considerable number of corals that can be successfully kept in nano tanks. I myself currently keep a colony of 4 heads of Neon Frogspawn (soon 5, one head is splitting), one Torch Coral, a colony of zoanthids and GSP in a 10 gallon rec. 

@resRfun 

I doubt you have a sea urchin, the flowery things are probably featherdusters - common hitchhikers, and the other stuff sounds like your average assortment of pods and worms.

The only thing I'm concerned about is the green/brown armored thing. If it's what I think it is, it could be trouble.


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## resRfun (Aug 26, 2007)

hmm when i came home from school... seems like nothing is in sight right now (except a couple worms). I'm guessing all these guys are nocturnal? 

New spotting's... a really REALLY long worm i spotted last night, very thin, no other description. A flat purple "leech?" that can swim around pretty fast, (when its on the rocks, it just looks like a purple splotch.) 

And ive found 2 of those "sea urchins". They are purple, move very slowly, spiky, one is approx 1 cm big, the other is 3 cm. And now i cant find them.

EDIT: heres the best pic i got for now... ill get a better pic of the urchin later when it comes out.



















more updates: spotted some "tiny ghost shrimps" picking up pebbles and "flying" into the rocks. Any chance these can become those bigger kinds of shrimp?

I think its more than hitchhikers... like an invasion XD

And i spy more of those flowery stationary worms.


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## crazy4fish (Dec 31, 2007)

holy cow! sounds like you got a pretty interesting tank and you didnt even buy the fish yet! lol


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## resRfun (Aug 26, 2007)

yup, still finding new stuff everyday. According to my research i think i have a couple tiny bristle worms too, half their body is yellow/see through, and the other half is blue. 

I asked my nearby sea aquarium store guy to see what kind of starter fish i should get... and he said something about a green ______ ? i keep forgetting what it is but he said its even more basic than clown fish, or gobies. 

itll save me a long drive if you can figure out the name  

thanks


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## Cody (Dec 22, 2007)

Oh wow, green fish. There is a lot of green fish out there. Lol. I would think Damsels, but is there a green damsel? Oh, dont cycle your tank with fish if you plan on keeping corals.

I also doubt you would have urchins as a 'hiker. Very unlikely. I want to say it is a Brittle Star, but it may not.

The Rolley Polley thing sounds bad. Like it has armor? Does it have claws at all? A lot of visible legs?


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## resRfun (Aug 26, 2007)

havnt seen that rolly polly guy in a while, but when i last remember he did have a lot of legs, and 2 larger ones in the front.. possibly claws :shock: 

Would you know what it is?

And i dont plan on getting fish for a couple more weeks, so ill wait then to get some of those basic fish and coral, and maybe a invert

How small are urchins when they are babies? because i looked up brittle stars... and these things dont look like brittle stars. they have real "SPIKES" stickin out... like needles that barely move. the brittle stars i saw that i looked up look like star fish with hair, or circles with tentacles. these do not definetly look like them, unless im looking at the wrong kind of brittle star 

thanks


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## bobo (Sep 20, 2007)

look up mantis shirmp and tell us if thats the rolly polly guy.

Also i think your petshop may have said green Chromis. check those up too.

Easy starter fish.


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## gymnothorax (Sep 20, 2007)

sounds like you do have urchins, and guessing from the variety of hitchhikers present in your tank, it is very likely that you have a mantis shrimp in there as well. This is not necessarliy a good thing as a mantis shrimp will more than likely kill any mobile creature you add to your tank. O, and the black and white worms that stay in pne place are actually the tentacles of tiny serpent stars, they stay in the rock at that size with only their tentacles protruding to catch food particles that blow their way. : )


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## Puffer (Jul 6, 2007)

I wouldn't even put any fish in just yet, And if you do i wouldn't start with Damsels, There very territorial and you might have to take out all your Rock to Catch em just my 2 cents
Carl. :wink:


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## resRfun (Aug 26, 2007)

that little buggar does look very similar to the mantis shrimp.... but not as a big tail. The tail was more like a stub than a big "whale flipper" from underneath the armor. How could i track him down and catch him if he is a bad little critter?

And i think he did say green chromis (thanks). Those fish were the ones the guy showed me in the shop as a recommendation. 

Thanks again


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## resRfun (Aug 26, 2007)

hmm, im going to have to double post since i only had 30 min to edit the last post, 

found a long, skinny slow worm, pure white. No detail (no hairs, no head, no different colors) just crawling around on the top of the rocks. Its not part of anything else, just a 3 cm long worm.

Ive tried to look up worms that might look like it, but found no name for it. 
Any info on this kind of worm?


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## bobo (Sep 20, 2007)

if it is a mantis shrimp i`m looking to buy one - although that would involve shipping to cyprus


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## Aquatic_Fan (Nov 30, 2007)

aren't mantis shrimps very hard to keep due to the size they get and can crack aquarium glass really easily.....if im thinking the right kind of shrimp...it shoots or hits the glass like a .22 caliber bullet.....very powerful for a shrimp lol :S am i talking about the right one... because at my LFS they have one inside a large tank but is locked up in a smaller see thru box within the tank......must be some crazy shrimp


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## Cody (Dec 22, 2007)

Mantis's arn't very hard to keep. Depending on the specie, they can be kept in 10G or even less (more too). You can keep them with LR and corals, but no fish or inverts. Just give them hiding spots and they feel secure. You just drop a snail in every other day or so, or for bigger ones, every day. You are correct about the claw thing; you do not want to put your hand in a tank with a Mantis Roaming around.

As for the worm, I will try to do some research.


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## crazy4fish (Dec 31, 2007)

i saw a show on the discovery channel or something about mantis shrimp. they are very colorful and cool to look at but dont seem to friendly. i also heard that they will charge your tank and break right through it. yeah i would get it out of there before it either eats all your other animals or breaks your tank! be careful getting it out though they hurt really bad!

how would you ship one of those? you cant use a plastic bag can you? i mean, if it can break glass, plastic would be no trouble for it.


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