Sarcophine's 40 gallon breeder

[Sarcophine]

Hello! This is my 40 gallon breeder tank.



My oldest fish is Scott, an Azure Damsel (sold to me as a Scott's damsel). He came with me from FL with another fish but I gave that one away for being a meanie. I then added Ellie, a yellow clown goby, Hafros, a one spot blenny (sold to me as a rose blenny), and Scoops, the diamond watchman goby.

Scott, the Azure Damsel
Ellie the Yellow Clown Goby
Hafros, the One Spot Blenny

Everything was going great and I decided to build a sump. I had always wanted one again, after 6 or so years of being restricted to hang-on-the-backs, so I had planned it out already and it was a pretty easy build. Now I actually need to get the refugium going!

(Still a work in progress)

Finally got that set up at the end of July but about a week ago I was messing with the return flow every 10 minutes and I left the back 1 inch of my tank uncovered overnight so, obviously, my diamond goby committed suicide (ROOKIE MISTAKE! still kicking myself). That's why there's no pic of him above

I've also got an anemone and a few corals: 3 ricordias, a mushroom, galaxia, zoas, a tree coral, and a dendro coral. All of them made the trip with me from FL

[scelona]

Beautiful tank, I really like your rock work. How were you able to transport everything from florida? Sounds like quite a journey

[jessegarcia28]

Everything looks great
But IMO
I would paint the back black.
Have fun
Jesse


Sent from my iPhone 6+ using Tapatalk

[Sarcophine]

I'm more of a fan of the backgrounds on the off chance my fish actually notice it and think they live in a bigger environment. Painting it black, while it helps highlight what's actually in the tank, always seemed like an abrupt boundary to me.

[Sarcophine]

Beautiful tank, I really like your rock work. How were you able to transport everything from florida? Sounds like quite a journey

(I'm hoping a got the quote thing right this time)
Thanks! I'm surprised the rock work turned out okay because it was a little haphazard in the making.

The trip was not one I recommend haha It was a 3 day drive and required six 5-gallon buckets (4 with lids), 2 aerators, and 2 carboys for water changes though luckily I didnt need them. Everyone made it out alive

[Sarcophine]

So here is the first question I had, now that you know my tank a bit. Feel free to reply with links to other threads if you find one that already has good insight on this.

I'm looking for any evidence of a sand-sifting fish that's NOT a goby or a blenny. I'm not a fan of the sifting inverts I've read up on so Im looking for a fish, definitely. The reason it can't be a goby or a blenny is because I have a One Spot blenny and apparently he doesnt like sharing tanks with other fish that have similar body forms. You could suggest a goby that is maybe a little different (ex: yellow clown goby not really same body form). He seemed to get along fine with the diamond goby for the 2 weeks they were together until the diamond goby suicided, a fin display from time to time but no fighting. It may be no issue to have a goby in there or they may have only gotten along because I put them in at the same time. Now the blenny has had the tank competition-free for a while and I'm concerned he wont be as nice if I add another. But I also need a sand sifter.

[swplimited]

Some wrasses play in the sand, nice tank btw

[Sarcophine]

Wrasses are a good suggestion. I'll look into them. Thanks!

[crabbysd]

I have had mandarins and scooters goby and blenny and such and it sometimes depends on the fish personality and like you said body shape. I had a scooter that hated everyone in the tank.
Twin spot goby have a very dis similar body shape . Sleeper gobies , brown barred.
the sand sifting wrasses i looked at all seem to have large tank require ments or arent reef safe.
As far as sand sifters i thought most were goby and blenny just by evoloution, and most others are just not common in the aquarium trade because of appearance and difficulty.
Pesonally i like inverts. Conchs have more personality than youd expect.
update us on what you find.

[Sarcophine]

I had perused local stores for any fish that had a sand-loving personality, keeping an eye out for wrasses and anyone else who was picking at the sand, but all I found were gobies and inverts. I'm not against inverts because they dont have personality (in fact I quite love inverts - I have studied them for quite some time) but they dont seem suited to my tank. I can't seem to keep snails alive very long and the stars and cucumbers seem to do *too* good of a job so they either starve or deplete my bugs. I want to get a target/spotted dragonet eventually, so Im going to hang on to my bugs. Started my refugium though. That should help.

After a month, I eventually caved and got another goby. This time, a Sleeper Blue Dot Goby. I got one much smaller than my blenny so the blenny doesnt think he poses a threat (and so the goby will not try to fight back). By the time the goby grows up, he'll be an inch and a half longer than the blenny. He's already a good sifter and seems to have one hidey-hole rather than 18 hidey-holes like my diamond goby did. I like that I always know where to look for him. I was lucky in that his hole is right at the front of the tank haha. Was worried he might only clean around his hole, but he seems to still enjoy cleaning the rest of the tank too. Suggested tank size was 35 gal and I have a 40 gal so he should fit right in. The blenny seems to have no problem so far, but will keep an eye as the goby gets bigger.

(Edit: typo)

[crabbysd]

Sleeper bluedot cool choice. Where did you find him.
He and Halfros get along I assume.

[jpick]

40 breeder is one of my favorite tanks.

[Sarcophine]

I got him at Aqua SD. They usually have a decent number of diamond gobies in their store but when I went in the last time, there were no diamond gobies and about 4 of these blue dot ones so I googled them on my phone for a few minutes and made the purchase. He and Hafros are best buds
[IMG][/IMG]