A reef-ish setup designed for: Calinus Laevimanus or C.tricolor, and/or an Ophuroidea

[Ruttle]

There is so much I want to respond to... where do I start??!?

Jaws + Christyf5 SB = sand bed, thanks!

Jaws - Abbriviations are fine w/ me, aslong as I know them, heh. Whats tough though is when you look up information on a non-forum website and they are like "just hook up the GBV to the NO, and then the HVO will go here... and the your GBA works like this with UVA and some UVB and why not toss a little UVC at you while where at it" and you can't ask any questions

"Introducing them to an aquarium is usually the hardest task. Adding them to water with different parameters than what they were in before, like salinity, alkalinity, and temperature, can be too big of a shock to their system and they can die easily" It always is isnt it? I have some pond goldfish (which I actually bred by accident lol) and I have put them through some awful acclimation periods. Thankfully, they are goldfish oh and JMO and IMO I think I've heard of those before, "L.O.L."

fakename - Oh, I do like corals. The only thing I dislike is (like most saltwater) that they are so tempermental + expsensive. Anenomes are truly awsome critters too. Funny thing though, I tend to be interested in the side attractions in a setup if you know what I mean. Everyone else seems to look at the at the bright duster or the brain coral while I am pointing at the little microscopic copepod saying somthing like "look you can see its eggs.." I think you could give me a bucket of pond water and it would keep me occupied for days! Nevermind a bucket of live sand lol!

demon666 - Yea, I know what you mean. My problem is I seem to jump around from addiction to addiction! Actually I was wondering about Hydriods which I've read can grow on hermit shells? Not entierly sure what a hydriod is though, I dont think its coral. I know in fresh water there are Hydras I think, which are related to jelly fish or somthing.

Ruth - "A small aquarium will definately not be adequate to house any kind of linkia star" - Thats fine, I really like the brittle stars best anyways.


Ok I think that covers pretty much everything except for new questions!


Firstly lets start with tank size. How small is small? I know its a relative term. I would like to utilize a small cube shaped tank I have, I think its around 3.5 - 4 gallons (9in x 9in x 10in) - but that is probably too small, yes? no? I also have a 2 ten gallons, a five (this and one of the tens is cracked), a 1-3 gal (not sure what it is but its plastic) and a 20 gallon long. The problem with the larger ones is they are in the basement --- which also houses the wood stove! Goldfish, crayfish, and freshwater clams and snails seem to tolerate the temp fluctuations but I doubt anything SW would survive.

Secondly, are the common brittles and dwarf blue hermit compatible? it would seem they are, as they are often sold togeather - but in a small tank even?

Uh... so many things I want to ask...

Ok here is one. I have had a lot of setups (fish, dryland animals ect) but it seems VERY hard to make it look nice. It always ends up looking like its purpose is to keep the animals alive and not to look nice or asthetically pleasing in any way! How would you personally go about creating a small hermit and/or brittle star setup that looks nice?

I'm sure there is more but... thats all for now (folks)! thanks!

Edit: Ok I thought of somthing. I have read that dwarf blue hermits are anywere from 1/4in to 1in... Isnt that exremely small? Is that the size of the creature + the shell or just the creature? Does any one have a photo of one for size reference?

[Willow]

im probably going to hell. i have a blue linkia in my 90 for the last 10 months. i have keep a pretty close eye on him for deterioration and so far so good, he looks as good as the day he went into the tank. one thing i have noticed that each time i add a new piece of coral he is all over the back of it for days on end so he must be getting some good bacteria out of them. besides that i have 3 other large brittle stars and a few smaller ones. most of them all eat pellets, flake or mysis if they can catch them.

[Static]

If you're looking for inspiration on how nice a small tank can bee, have a look at Fish's 2 gallon cube tank
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=15635

Some pictures of his tank are located here
http://www.nano-reef.com/gallery/sho...0&ppuser=10857

[Ruttle]

THATS IS AWSOME!!! The tank and the video of it! That is kinda what I was thinking of. Was the mantis shrimp eating a blue leg hermit? How long have you had those up? I have read that picos and nanos tend to crash.

Do you have a page on how you went about make them? How much did it cost in the end you think?

EDIT: I was just watch it again... I get it.. "shallow waters" LOL, so funny- GJ w/ tank and video again

[Ruth]

Here is a link to some common abbreviations that helped me in the past. There are of course more and a couple that I see missing are on a hotly debated topic right now - BB=Bare bottom tank, DSB=Deep sand bed, and SSB=shallow sand bed.
http://www.megapathdsl.net/~fmariani/abbreviations.htm