[stuntman]

Hi

I have just set up an 18g nano tank. I have live sand and around 9kg of Indianesian live rock. I added my cleaner crew a week ago - 2 cleaner shrimps, 3 hermit crabs and 3 snails.

I need advice on stocking with fish - how many can i have in an 18g tank?

any suggestions on what to have?

I would like a clownfish - can these be kept on their own or do they have to be in pairs?.

Also, lighting - I have two 11w 8000k T5 lamps. I will be replacing one of them with a blue one.
Will this be sufficient for keeping fish and growing stuff on my rock?
I will upgrade later on before i get some corals.

Thanks

[volitan_fa]

18 gallons is good size for a nano. You can keep only one clownfish, but you can only keep one breed in a tank (generally) or they will pick on each other. If you ever plan on keeping more than one, it's best to introduce them in a pair. You might also want to keep some type of sand-sifting goby.

As for the lighting, if you replaced one bulb with True Actinic 03 and the other one with a 10,000K bulb you would be fine for fish only and maybe some coralline growth, but that's it. You probably wouldn't be able to raise many (if any) corals with that lighting. To get corals, you want to figure at LEAST 4-6 watts/gallon. If you had 2 x 36 watt T5s, then you could start to talk about some corals.

The tank/rock looks good though. Keep it up, I'd like to see this one evolve

[stuntman]

Thanks for your advice. will post more picture as it evolves!

It is possible to have 2 different types of clownfish together i.e. 1 maroon and 1 percula?

i was thinking of having 4 fish - is this overstocking?

[volitan_fa]

You cannot have a maroon with any other clown, they are fairly aggressive and usually can't even be kept more than one to a tank.

Percula and false percula clowns can mix, as well as black perc. and those type of species.

What 4 fish are you thinking of having? That makes a huge difference as to whether you're overstocking or not....

[stuntman]

Thanks.

Would the Maroon clown be aggresive to other fish like damsels?

I was thinking 1 clown, a blue damsel, a black and white damsel, and maybe some sort of goby.
Or maybe another clown instead of the goby.

What do you think?.

[volitan_fa]

My personal opinion...stay away from damsels. They are a pain in the arse, VERY territorial and aggressive. I'm sure most users here will agree.

Maroon clowns get huge as well...the biggest clowns if memory serves me. I think you'd be better off going with percula, ocellaris, or clarkii clowns. Gobies are fine, in fact good, to have. Keep brainstorming