Just got a new 5'..need some suggestions!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
A lionfish will be fine with corals. His size when full grown would be the only issue as he may damage corals or get damaged by them if he freaked out and rushed around or something but i wouldnt worry about that too much as it would be a few years before that could happen (if ever) and by then you would probably want to upgrade anway. Or you could always sell off or frag your overgrown corals.
I would try a few hermits in there and if there big they will probs be ok but when the eel grows they may be in trouble. Ive never seen a lion eat one. You could always get one of the huge hermit crabs if you really want one.
If the catfish your talking about is black with a white line then yeah they are pretty cool when young and they get about 30cm but turn into ugly brown things. Not exactly what ide want in my SW tank. They are sorta cool but if you want something that looks like that, since your a fellow Aussie you could get a tandanus catfish for like $10 and it would be alot cheaper to keep and look and act very similar.
As for tangs if you add both at same time you might be ok but once 1 is in there i doubt you will be able to add anymore later on.
 
Lol, I have a FW tandanus in my pond right now, and I love those things, but I don't think I'll let them into my SW, might as well try something else. As for the hermits, I just want something in there to help clean up what my filter can't get to, so yeah. How big are those so called "huge" hermits get to? Any chance of being able to collect them of our local beaches?

How big do gobies get? They stay relatively small I assume.

Ill put the tangs into considertion for now, but yeah, probably get some dominos first, than the tang, then the lion, then the eel. Dominos would probably be dinner in like 1/2 years time, but i'll sort that out later :D
 
Bit off topic but how big is your tandanus?? Is it very predatory? I guess you wouldnt know since its in a pond. I have a small one and hope it turns into atleast abit of a monster since we cant get any good real monsters here without spending $100s.
The big hermits can live in shells a fair bit bigger then your fist so not much chance of the eel eating one of them. Depending on where you live in Aus its possible to get small hermits from rockpools at the beach. I catch heaps of the things to feed to my mantis shrimp. I havent seen big ones in rock pools though but when snorkeling a few weeks ago i found one that was in one of those huge ornamental shells that you can buy at crappy tourist places. It was one big ass hermit crab. I just left him there though as he was way to big to put in my SW tank.
I gotta point out though i dont have that good a success rate with them unless aclimatized for ages as i live only an hour or so north of sydney and the water is a fair bit colder then my tank.
What sorta gobies?? Some get quite big but 99% of species stay really small.
 
My tandanus (last time I saw it) was about 5-6"? Had a bigger one but it died couple of months ago.

Mantis shrimp! I keep on hearing them as beasts but how will they fare with an eel? Where in Australia are you? I'm from Sydney but I go to the beaches at Central Coast every now and then.

I don't know what sort of gobies, some recommendations would be great!
 
pretty much any gobiy you want is cool. there's some 3,000 species i think, so take your pick. the only thing is there's one kind of goby (class or family) that's is pretatory and will take lil bites out of your other fish. the golden mimic blenny is one of my favorites, followed by neons, and watchman. watchman gobies will usually form a symbiotic relationship with pistol shrimp, which is pretty cool.
 
p.s. the eel would eat the mantis shrimp.
 
I live at Terrigal on the coast which is possibly somewhere you have been to. Yeah def dont put a mantis with an eel. If the eel was real small the mantis could damage the eel and a big eel would just eat the mantis.
You will have to be carefull with a lionfish and gobies. Really you should be looking at the bigger species.
 
Oh yeah I know where Terrigal is. At night it would probably take me about 40mins to get there (depending on driving speed :naughty: ). is there anything to collect at Terrigal?

I'm not sure what's what. Been meaning to get a book about marine fish but de ones' that I've seen are hella expensive! Still should invest in one though, in the end, its easier to flip through a book to find what I want, than to google it on the net.
 
Nothing that reef like. I have heard from the guys i got my scuba licence of that every summer when the big currents come down from QLD that small clowns and lionfish ect get washed down and end up in Syd harbour and can be caught as they go past but i havent seen anything that exciting. I caught a small reef puffer though which was pretty cool.
Non reef there is heaps.
Ive caught and kept shrimp, crabs, nudibranchs, sea slugs, hermit crabs, a blue ring octopus, 3 bigger species of octopus, a white morey eel (white eyed i think its name is) and about 10 green coloured moreys but have let them all go except for a small about 10" one. I also have caught heaps of small fish there to feed to my fish.
Terrigal is a great place to scuba or snorkel as even with the boats around and all the fisherman there is life everywhere underwater. There are heaps of huge bullrays cruising around including a few which would be atleast 1.5m across. There are also alot of electric rays around which are very fun to play with when you have unsuspecting people with you who havent been shocked by them before.
 
Wow cool! So its just off the Terrigal beach or somewhere near by?
 
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