Suggestions for a Species 16 G tank

[mling]

I am looking for suggestions for what to do with my 16G tank after a tank crash.

Here's a pic of what it now looks like.

 

 

I was thinking of a Jaw fish only setup but was not sure if a deep sand bed is a good idea for such a small tank.

 

 

[Pants]

What are the tank dimensions? Acrylic or glass and how thick? (wondering about a temperate tank with catalina goby). How is the filtration? Could you handle the feedings for seahorses or pipefish?

 

I'd think it is too small for a jawfish. Perhaps stomatopod?

[mling]

What are the tank dimensions? Acrylic or glass and how thick? (wondering about a temperate tank with catalina goby). How is the filtration? Could you handle the feedings for seahorses or pipefish?

 

I'd think it is too small for a jawfish. Perhaps stomatopod?

 

Semi circular tank, 20" wide, 16" high and 9 to 13" deep.  All Glass tank, not sure on thickness.   Has a Aqua C Remora hang on back filter.

Need something that I can feed with an auto as I make frequent short trips out of town.  So fishes needing live or hand fed food would not do.  That kind of rules our seahorses or pipe fish, right ?

 

The National Auqa in Baltimore has a Jawfish exhibit which was a rather small tank, maybe a 20 G, that why I was wondering it I could do that.  Just concerned about a DSB in a small tank.

[Coral Hind]

The sand bed does not have to be deep for a jaw fish. We have a 3" blue dot in a 16g and the sand is just over an inch. It dug out a spot under the rocks and just hides under it.

[Pants]

People will often use pvc to build little tunnels for jawfish to make them more comfortable in shallow sand tanks. Their burrows in the wild are several feet deep. If you go for a bluespot be aware that they do best in lower temperatures than your typical reef tank. They will adapt to higher temps, but don't live as long.

 

From Tropical Fish Magazine:

 

 

Aquarists almost never provide this species with a system of the proper size and shape.

Though this fish is small, it really requires a large area of open expanse in a wide tank to feel comfortable. How much dimensionally? A good 3 feet between specimens and at least 2 feet front to back in the aquarium. There should be at least 8 inches of mixed fine sand and rubble substrate for them to create their burrows.

Now you say, “But I’ve seen other folks who have kept this jawfish in smaller settings, crowded even with other fishes!” Maybe they were lucky, but very likely their blue-spot did not live very long or well.

As if the call for grand-size systems with few if any roommates and great bunches of sand weren’t enough, these fish are not really tropical animals. That’s right; they live in cooler water. The Eastern Pacific coast, where the jawfish is found, is cooled by the California Current, a stream of cold water from Alaska. This makes it surprisingly cooler than you might think.

The practical implication is that water off the Californias is appreciably cooler than the same latitudes in the West Pacific, with the habitat of this jawfish being mostly in the upper 50s to upper 60s, and rarely lower 70s. Being an old timer in this interest, including the hobby, trade, and sciences, I have seen a few cycles of cool to colder water organisms sold (or may I state misrepresented) as tropicals, including Catalina gobies, Garibaldi, Metridium and Tealia anemones, moon snails, many types of algae, etc. None of these will live for long in too-warm surroundings, and neither will this coolwater jawfish. No matter where you live, it is very likely you will likely need to buy and run a chiller to keep this fish.

 

I think a Mantis Shrimp (stomatopod) might be a good fit. Take a look at some youtube videos of them. They are very colorful and have a lot of personality (like a jawfish). They don't need great water quality and can be fed intermittently. They eat frozen food easily. You can even often get them for free or very cheap since many people consider them pests.

[treesprite]

I had a 4 - 5" DSB in my 16g nano that I had in my old office up until 6 years ago. It was the only tank I've had that had nearly perfect water quality and I didn't even have a skimmer or filter on it, just the DSB and a sectioned off end packed with macros. The real reason I put in the DSB was that I only had a PC light fixture on it and wanted to keep corals in it (which I did).