Mangrove Tank Stocking Suggestions

SaltedCarmel

SaltedCarmel

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I’m looking for unique suggestions to stock this IM15 AIO. I’d prefer to do oddball fish/invertebrates that are typically associated with mangrove forests in the wild instead of reef fish.

Some of my initial ideas were:

- Mantis shrimp species-only
- Pipefish + inverts
- Dwarf seahorses (would be challenging due to daily feeding requirement & college)
- Pistol shrimp-goby pair
- Upside-down jellyfish

Let me know what you think!

(Also yes the mangroves underwater are actually growing successfully. They should reach the surface in a month or so and will then sprout leaves. Whenever I do water changes, I let them dry out for a little as an extra precaution.)
 
Once the roots are established, a group of pistol shrimp and gobies could be a really cool option. Similarly, a flock of pearly jawfish would be very at home within the roots. With enough macroalgae/root surface area, you could actually keep some micro seahorses with almost no additional supplementation. Mosaic Macros sells some that are the size of a pinky nail as adults, they keep them in "goldfish bowls" with macros and seagrasses and they thrive.
Other ideas could be pea puffers, canthigaster puffers, a harem of blackcap Grammas, a group of dartfish, or any other fish that is usually too skittish to keep in normal aquaria.

Quick tip, with that many pods they are bound to overgrow each other and end up choking each other out; it takes a while for them to grow, but after a year or so even just one is enough to fill a whole nano with roots. Getting light to the animals below will be a problem with so many competing canopies.
 
Jikkermanccini said:
Once the roots are established, a group of pistol shrimp and gobies could be a really cool option. Similarly, a flock of pearly jawfish would be very at home within the roots. With enough macroalgae/root surface area, you could actually keep some micro seahorses with almost no additional supplementation. Mosaic Macros sells some that are the size of a pinky nail as adults, they keep them in "goldfish bowls" with macros and seagrasses and they thrive.
Other ideas could be pea puffers, canthigaster puffers, a harem of blackcap Grammas, a group of dartfish, or any other fish that is usually too skittish to keep in normal aquaria.

Quick tip, with that many pods they are bound to overgrow each other and end up choking each other out; it takes a while for them to grow, but after a year or so even just one is enough to fill a whole nano with roots. Getting light to the animals below will be a problem with so many competing canopies.
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I love these suggestions! This tank might be a tad small for pearly jawfish or blackcap grammas, but puffers is a really great idea! I'm definitely partial to dwarf seahorses, so if I can make it work with feeding them, they're definitely #1 on my list so far. Thanks for the tip by the way, I'll see what I can do about the mangroves. Some of the propagules may go to new homes; I just wanted to make sure I had a couple survive their initial addition to the aquarium!
 
If you can get your hands on them, a small school of Neon Blue Eye Rainbowfish would be amazing! They are found naturally in mangrove areas in Australia. Would be very unique as I think most reefers don't even know these exist!

reefbuilders.com

The Neon Blue Eye is a Nano Rainbowfish for a Saltwater Tank | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

If you like to extend the limits of what is possible in reefing then let us introduce you to the Neon Blue Eye, Pseudomugil cyanodorsalis. A genus of mainly freshwater fish from Australia and New Guinea, Pseudomugil gertrudae and furcatus are the two species you’ll usually find gracing tropical...
reefbuilders.com
 
Wait this is such an incredible suggestion! Ideas like this is exactly what I was looking for. I’ve never heard of them before, but I’ll definitely be on the lookout for them now. I guess I should do a little update on what the tank is looking like currently, because it would get you all a better sense of what I’m going for.
chaples55 said:
If you can get your hands on them, a small school of Neon Blue Eye Rainbowfish would be amazing! They are found naturally in mangrove areas in Australia. Would be very unique as I think most reefers don't even know these exist!

reefbuilders.com

The Neon Blue Eye is a Nano Rainbowfish for a Saltwater Tank | Reef Builders | The Reef and Saltwater Aquarium Blog

If you like to extend the limits of what is possible in reefing then let us introduce you to the Neon Blue Eye, Pseudomugil cyanodorsalis. A genus of mainly freshwater fish from Australia and New Guinea, Pseudomugil gertrudae and furcatus are the two species you’ll usually find gracing tropical...
reefbuilders.com
Click to expand...
 
I guess I might as well turn this into a legitimate build thread (if it’s possible to change the title, someone please let me know how).

I’ll start off with an update on the tank as it’s been filled for a little over a month now.

The current stock:
- 4 Red-leg hermit crabs
- 2 Cerith snails
- 3 Astraea snails (these will eventually go to my main reef tank as they do better on rock than sand)

Hitchhikers include a live barnacle that came with one of the mangrove props, a spaghetti worm, several collonista snails, and an unknown amount of micro brittle stars.

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Under the sand is a layer of Fluval Stratum, which I believe is the culprit for the near-exponential growth these mangroves have had over the past 2 weeks.

My current plans are to set this up as (finally) a dwarf seahorse tank. I’m in the process of perfecting my baby brine shrimp hatchery and I also would like to get Tisbe biminiensis harpacticoid pods culturing before I bring in the horses.
 
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So my order of Shoal Grass (Halodule wrightii) from Aquaticus Plants just arrived! It all looks super healthy and was the perfect amount for a nano like this. They even assured me that their systems are treated so the plants are hydroid-free (I guess we’ll find out).

Either way, I love the way they look and they should do well in my deep sand + soil substrate. This species also has the added bonus of being the species, besides Turtle Grass (Thalassia testudinum), that dwarf seahorses are most commonly found among in the wild.

This is my first experiment with sea grasses, so if anyone has any tips please let me know!
 
I have mangroves in my refug. There is miracle mudd and extra rock and rubble in the refug. I would like to add grass and welcome advice on how well your addition is going and if you’d recommend a source. I am sure there are snails and crabs in the refug so no horses for me but any other suggestions are welcomed. Whatever goes in need to be able to survive off of the nutrients in the refug as I dont intend to direct feed.
 

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omega6 said:
I have mangroves in my refug. There is miracle mudd and extra rock and rubble in the refug. I would like to add grass and welcome advice on how well your addition is going and if you’d recommend a source. I am sure there are snails and crabs in the refug so no horses for me but any other suggestions are welcomed. Whatever goes in need to be able to survive off of the nutrients in the refug as I dont intend to direct feed.
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Those mangroves are looking awesome!

An update on my seagrass experiment: Mostly a failure, but we shall see how things go in the future. Most of the grass lost color within the week and blades began detaching soon after. After doing some more research, I believe it may be a result of the shipping method used or the fact that I separated the single clump into several smaller bunches of grass to plant. Keeping the mud around the root structure undisturbed seems very important to their success, so I would suggest fiddling with it as little as possible (now I know better). I have 1 single bunch of grass that still has green blades, but we shall see if it can survive enough to begin growing new shoots. I also left in the roots of the seemingly-dead bunches in case they root into the substrate and grow new shoots.

I'm still working out some kinks with my setup. The 2 Cerith snails are doing excellently, but the Astraea snails died relatively quickly (I believe because the sandy environment isn't really ideal for their lifestyle). The hermits fought each other until only 1 remained (not sure why; I had plenty of empty shells provided) and then I found the last one being scavenged by a Cerith this morning. I've been testing water parameters (No ammonia, no nitrite, nitrate = 10 ppm) but I'm still uneasy adding horses if I don't know the source of mortality on that hermit crab.

I'll be adding some blue-leg hermits soon (smaller than red-legs and native to the same habitat as dwarf seahorses) and a couple more Cerith snails soon and continue monitoring. I'm considering adding a tester fish, but not entirely sure what to go for that would be easy to recapture. Something like a saltwater-acclimated sailfin molly may be the easiest option, but I'm open to suggestions.
 
Great summary and thank you for the kind words about my mangroves. I am very interested in your progression, keep me posted. Thank you
 
Thought it was about time for an update!
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The tank is doing amazing and I’ve been absolutely loving it so far! However, that doesn’t mean there haven’t been issues.

My enemy #1 (not really) at the moment is cyanobacteria. The stuff absolutely THRIVES in the high-nutrient environment this tank provides. I’m of the opinion that stuff like ChemiClean, etc. should be last resorts, so I’ve just kept chugging with manual removal.

I believe as the tank matures, the macroalgae will begin to outcompete other primary colonizers such as cyano and the problem will sort itself out.

About 2 weeks ago, I added a feather duster worm. It’s been out and feeding almost constantly and seems (as far as I can tell) healthy. I’m about to start culturing phytoplankton, which it will definitely benefit from.
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The main event: mangroves!

These red mangroves have been doing excellently. I’ve only had one die off and that was due to it being shaded out by the other trees while not getting its leaves above the water’s surface fast enough. I could have probably moved it, but the tank is fairly crowded with props, so I let nature take its course (more nutrients for the rest of the gang).

I also moved a couple polyps of sun corals over to this tank as they were getting food stolen from them constantly in the reef tank. They’re doing much better now and stay open about 50% of the day.

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Finally, I added a small yellowtail damselfish as a tester fish. It will eventually make way for another fish species, but for now I couldn’t be happier!
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