25g stock discussion help

[MCC]

One word of advice, which i learn the 'hard way' is only add cleaners moderately and as NEEDED. Meaning if your tank is new then don't add too much or none at all. If there is no algae present don't stock up on hermits/snails. I was excited just like you are right now, when my tank is 'newer' and not much algae or issues. So I went out and bought snails and a lot of hermits. 1.5 mths later half the hermits are dead, snails are still good. I don't over feed my tank to feed hermits. Some people do but then I think in Nano tanks it does worse than good as nitrates/phosphates will go crazy. Ironically, you overfeed your tank to feed your cleaners, but at the same time it raises the phosphate level, which in turn leads to an outbreak of algae. So they starve or kill others for food. There wasn't enough algae to keep both the snails and hermits alive.

As for 'fish' for a purpose, honestly the only real 'purpose' for a fish is algae eating fish, but then if you got hermits/snails then I wouldn't stress too much on that. Buy the fish your tank can keep and you are happy with (ie. behavior of the fish, color/shape of the fish) and not because it can eat algae etc..

Also when you say 'cleaner' do you mean ich? There isn't anything out there that really eats ich. Cleaner shrimps are awesome, but they 'clean' fish of dead tissue not because of ich. Cleaner wrasse are documented that they don't eat / kill ich but once again just eat dead tissue. Also they usually starve in a tank unless they are willing to eat frozen foods as dead tissues/copepods are their main source of food. Lastly neon gobies are just not my cup of tea.

Yes, don't get urchins. I don't like them either, they get big and they knock down everything. Unless your rocks/corals are glued down 100% then you will have issues. Just goes the same for sea stars, they move the sand, which means at the same time move the corals on your sand bed.

[beefORchicken]

i'm not a big fan of hermits and snails, they always seem to mess up corals and when you don't have the right amount (ie too many) or if hermits get hungry and start eating snails then you have unwanted waste. Of course this is my opinion, in my 25g i have 1 nassarius and 1 blue hermit.

As for fish stocking a blenny would be a great choice. I have a tsb and he is great! takes care of different algae - not sure if a blenny would have any problems with a watchman but definitely a great fish

my 25g has 2 clowns, tsb, royal gramma, 2 chromis
cheers