Help a new saltwater guy

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Large Fish
Mar 12, 2003
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#1
I finally decided to start a saltwater aquarium. It will be a 44 gallon diamond in the corner of the living room. My expenses to start (filter, live bagged sand, protien skimmer and beginning inhabitants such as anemonies, crabs and maybe a fish to begin cycle) will come to around 400 bucks. Any suggestions for the tank?

Also. Id love to go for seahorses. Are they suitable with other fish?

If not, id like a lionfish, maybe. Any suggestions on this?

Comments would be GREATLY appreciated, as this is a huge undertaking. Thank you.

*laughingc
 

wayne

Elite Fish
Oct 22, 2002
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#2
Suggestions - buy a good book like Fenners Conscientious marine aquarist. It'll cost you 30 bucks or whatever and save you hundreds.
No anemonaes - they're just too hard for beginners. They can live hundred years plus in the wild, orabout 6 weeks in most beginners tanks. It's not a tough choice to leave them in the sea

Seahorses are ok for smaller tanks, but hard work to feed. Not a good beginner choice.

Your tank is too small for lionfish really. Try a pair of clowns, some gobies , dottybacks, once it's been running for 6 months a dwarf angel.

Learn to have lots of patience
 

NTidd

Large Fish
Oct 22, 2002
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#3
First off you usually can't have any seahorses with fish, the seahorses are completly defenseless, some fish will work, but most won't. The aquarium would have to be very well established before adding seahorses. Also, cycling a tank with an anemone is a very bad idea, a couple fish would work to cycle it, but make sure that you choose your fish wisely. Lionfish won't really work with a lot of things.
 

toodles

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Jan 6, 2003
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#6
Before I go any further, I need to clarify that seahorses are not for the beginning saltwater hobbyist. You really need to get some experience with marines first, before trying seahorses!

If I remember correctly, all species of seahorses have been put on the CITIES list which will restrict the sale of living and dead wild caught seahorses. (Dead seahorses are used for medicinal and decorative purposes).
While some of the seahorses that you can buy at the LFS are still wild caught, this will soon change and the only ones that will be available will be the captive bred ones. They may cost more but they are worth it. With the purchase of a captive bred animal, not only are you not depleting the wild population, but you are also getting an animal that has already been trained to eat frozen foods! Ocean Ryder is a big facility in Hawaii that breeds all the various species of seahorses and pipefish and from my understanding is attempting to breed both species of seadragons.

A tank for seahorses must be set up differently than a normal reef tank....to get an idea of what they need try this site...

www.seahorse.org

As for lionfish, in a 44g you could try one of the dwarf species such as the fuzzy, the fu manchu or even the zebra. Be warned though that all lionfish are venomous, they may eat smaller fish, shrimp will be eaten, and that the dwarf lions are not that active so if you are looking for a fish that will swim around most of the time, you will be disappointed.
HTH
 

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Large Fish
Mar 12, 2003
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#8
I actually was going to pick those itty bitty damsels as my second choice to lionfish. Black ones with white spots would look absolutely perfect against the white crushes coral/sand.

Ill wait until my tank is very well cycled and I have some experience before seahorses, but one day I will indeed purchase and breed them.

Would y'all suggest clown or damsels to start? I like both, though damsels seem to have more variety.

If you guys suggest no anemonies, what might I use to be pretty and act as filter-types liek they would or basically form a "forest" like they would? Caves and hiding places and such.

Ah, and are there any marine specific plants?
 

NTidd

Large Fish
Oct 22, 2002
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#11
Didn't say not to have anemones, just don't start with them, wait about 6 months after it's been cycled and established, then get one and see how it does. I would agree to start with damsels, if your talking about domino damsels though, beware because I believe those buggers get aggressive.
 

wayne

Elite Fish
Oct 22, 2002
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#14
Anemonaes are just hard work for a beginner - you need near perfect water, the right lighting and the right size feeding. Most die real fast , nd considering they can live 100+ years in the wild, it's a bit of a disgrace they're sold so often. Plus they can declare chemical warfare on any other cnidarian inverts in there.

Damsels are a good and bad buy. They're tough, small and colourful and don't need much swimming room. They can also be crazy aggressive, and be a pain inthe butt later. 3 spots, humbugs and bluedevils are famously nasty, some yellow tails, clowns and chromis less so.
 

wayne

Elite Fish
Oct 22, 2002
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#15
Oh, with a tank this small , skimming is an option, you might be better off with weekly 10 water changes, or more as is required
 

wayne

Elite Fish
Oct 22, 2002
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#16
Sorry , forget that about skimming. With 44 gallons, go for a nice skimmer. Either a hang on if you're not sumping, or in the back corner with an intank. Put your heater in this back corner, make it technology corner, surround it with 'egg crate, then live rock, and it' sall nicely out of sight. Make sure maintenance access is ok
 

toodles

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Jan 6, 2003
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#17
As said before, anemones need much better lighting than a fish only tank, excellent water quality and a mature stable tank. When you said that "they eat the microscopic lil critters for cycling" did you mean the anemone eats the bacteria? Because they don't. They will sometimes take plankton, and of course they use lighting, but they also require regular feedings of meaty foods.

Featherdusters are a great choice and are very easy to maintain. Try to avoid the coco worms though....they have nice colors but are harder to keep alive (coco worms have a hard calcerous tube rather than the softer "paper" looking tubes of the common featherduster).

I have no idea what you mean by "grey looking mud skippers"....

Wayne has an excellent idea by putting all your equipment behind eggcrate and hiding it. If I could do one thing different with my own tank, it would be to use a sump or some way to hide all the crap that the tank requires!

Be careful with your choice of fish. Dominos are beautiful active fish but they are probably the most aggressive of the damsels. If you wish to keep one or two of them, then you need to think out what other fish could possibly go with them safely. What you need are other fish just as aggressive as the dominos or possibly more so like one of the dottyback species, or fish that have other means of defending themselves like foxfaces or dwarf lions. You will also have to determine the best order of introduction too, depending on the aggression level of each fish.
And boxfish? Nice fish, lots of personality but better off kept in a species only tank as under stress they can release a fatal toxin that can wipe out your tank. Cute things though....if I had room for another tank I think I'd get one of these guys (I love the way they hover around!):)
 

NTidd

Large Fish
Oct 22, 2002
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#18
hehe a little of topic but I have a tomotoe clown that is very small and friendly toward everyone in the tank, but when I have my hand inside to clean or move something, he attacks it, I will flick at him and he will back up and then dart back and attack my hand again, he is very friendly with all of the other fish though.
 

Slacker

Large Fish
Mar 12, 2003
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#19
44 gallon is small? Yipes. Im use to a 20! ha! Getting an 85 for my cichlids though lol. I also think water changes will be hard. I mean...getting water salty and stuff for the tank matching..

And wayne..what are some good choices? Damsels just look so damn cool! Anything matching that coolness?