[leezard]

My husband and I are new "reef" keepers.

Ok. No reef, yet. I just like to say it. One day, one day.

We have a twenty gallon aquarium with about 11 snails, 5 hermit crabs, 2 conches and 2 perculas, who are apparently determining who is male and female.

We were told by Jason at AI that they tend to reach sexual maturity at around 3 years, and have a tendency to become extremely aggressive (as he pointed out the scars on his knuckles from bites).

In discussing this, I was told that purple firefish and the orchid dottyback should get along fine as long as there are plenty of hiding spots. That there are, since we have much of the branching live rock with lots of crevices.

The two spot goby, however, may not get along so well.

We're trying to determine what else to put into the tank so it a relatively peaceful community, and in what order.

My thoughts went to the goby -- if we were to add him to the tank before the percs showed signs of aggression, would this be a likely safe scenario, or would he likely be eaten as soon as they matured since he'd be unaccustomed to aggressive fish in the tank?

Or, if we were to wait until the percs reached maturity and add him to the tank at that point, would he be MORE likely to survive?

I realize that there are ALWAYS chances of fish dying. I just want to minimize these chances!!

Also, the pH dropped from about 8.3 to 7.4 in a matter of about two days. The staff at AI could only think that someone was possibly spawning. Nothing in the tank has changed, my last water change was last Friday, it does not sit in front of the window, no windows were open (I'd be nuts to do that!!).... I thought it odd that it dropped so low. Any ideas?