12 gal inhabitant question

[Kiko]

Over the Veterans Day holiday I was able to set up a 12 gallon tank that I had laying around.

With several pepieces of live rock, a small piggyback filter, and a single 20 inch florescent bulb, the tank was up and running quickly.

The tank is located on my covered lani (a porch). The temperature during the day is usually about 85 degrees, at night it drops to the mid to low 70's. The temperature in the tank will probably fluctuate, much like a tidepool would. I checked the temp several times yesterday during the day, and it was around 80.

My question is: What sort of very small fish (if any) would do well in this type of system?

 

[nodoubt471]

you could go with a royal gramma, a perc/ocellaris clown, a clown goby.... all those are small fish that do not require vast amounts of swimming room. oh perhaps an orchid pseudocromis? you could also put some cool inverts in there- shrimps are so much fun to watch!

i would check the temp during the night too. too much of a flucuation is not a good thing. if the temp change is more than 5 degrees, i would get a heater...

otherwise, i would just go with inverts. isn't it legal to collect for personal use in Maui? you could get actual organisms from a tidepool, which would be really cool.


HTH

 

[Kiko]

Thanks for your response nodoubt471,

I asked my LFS's owner about the legality of collection in tidepools, and a marine biologist over here as well. Basically, as long as you are not in a marine preserve, like Honolua Bay or La Perouse, and not selling what you find, it is treated like hunting or fishing, and falls under the same set of laws. There are size limits on certain shellfish, opihi and opai.

You are allowed to throw net, pole fish, and spear fish; personally, I don't think collection with an aquarium net is too much different - except that you are taking a lot less out of the ocean. While I like to snorkel, I am vegan and don't eat fish.

After researching online, I was leaning towards something out of the Goby family. I'll look up the clown goby. We usually have yellow gobies at the LFS here.

 

[nodoubt471]

yes i was planning on actually getting one of those for my 10g, let me know how it goes... i do know that they like lots of branching corals to swim through, and do best singly or in mated pairs.