Six Line Wrasse and Mated Goby Pair in 10.5G tank
 

OK, before you get upset at the question, please read my whole post.

I think normally it would be absurd to suggest putting a Six Line Wrasse and a mated Goby pair into a 10.5 gallon tank, but this is a rather unique tank, which gives a LOT of swimming ground-surface area for the water volume. I have a long thread about this in the nano tanks forum, and have asked this question there too, so my apologies if you have already seen this question. You can find my thread here:
[url]http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=11539972[/url]

Quick summary of the tank. It's a custom acrylic nano with a built in sump area. The display holds about 10.5 gallons, and the sump holds another 2-3 gallons. It has almost 21 lbs of LR in it, a skimmer, about 50x turnover, will run with fuge, purigen, and chemi-pure, and weekly 10% water changes. It's outside dimensions are 48" long by 12" deep (front to back) by 8.25" high. A shallow tank like this gives a LOT of territory and swimming area for fishes, which I understand is the main thing they need in a tank, rather than actual gallonage of water volume (assuming you can maintain the water qaulity). Here's a pic:
[IMG]http://mathiassmith.com/gallery2/d/671-2/img_2083.jpg[/IMG]

It has been suggested to me by more than one person that I could probably keep more fish in here than your typical tank of this volume because of its dimensions. I'd like to keep a 6-line and a mated goby pair in here (this will also be an LPS dominated tank, with 1-2 clams, and hopefully some hardier SPS species).

I've calculated the surface area of the floor of the display to be roughly 476 sq in. In order to have a cube with this much floor surface area, the cube would need to be over 21" on each side, yielding around 44 gallons.

Will this be OK, or is this asking too much?

Thanks for your input!

Cool tank. Six line wrasses are notoriously aggressive so bioload is not your risk it is an ornery fish. I would love to see you put in a shrimp goby pairing or trio.

Ugh, I must admit, I've been asking around with this question, and I seem to be getting a lot of conflicting advice. Glad you like the tank though. :) Thanks for the input.

I would think it would be OK. Because salt water fish are more teritorial this tank would be perrfect. It sounds like you also have a filter that can handle the bio-load. I say try it!

Sorry but territorial fish often mean dead fish if they are aggressive.

In fact, I'd say the response to this idea has been split right up the middle, with 50% saying I'd be totally fine, and 50% saying "no way".

Disregard the size, and do a search on sixlines in general. You'll find a handful of individuals who've had good luck (most of the time new/young sixlines). The majority however will not state a lot of luck no matter how big the tank. They just have an extremely aggressive disposition, and even if added last can just snap one day.

Interesting... sounds like the your advice is to not keep sixlines in general at all.

Having tried three of them, I'd say they have their uses like a single inhabitant of a sump or frag tank. Other than that, personally no I'm no longer interested in keeping them.

However, I'd do your own research and base your decision off of that.

I am also ixnay on the ixlinesay.

The problem with your setup is not the territory or the bioload but the choice of fish. The sixline is WAY too high risk. Don't risk it. There are too many better fish you could choose.

I can see a Wetmorella or 2 cruising that tank :-). Or dragonets, or....

Damn fine tank btw - it looks great - congrats.



FW

Cool, thanks guys! I'm certainly open to suggestions for other fish. Sixline's are so beautiful, but it is what it is. I'll post another topic in the fishes forum for "Suggestions for this tank?"

Thanks again!

Not sure why you started another thread for this :confused:

I think a royal gramma would look nice, maybe a pair of watchman gobies.

I agree, skip the 6 line.

Thanks. Started another thread just because my question no longer matches my thread title ;)

I think you can ask a mod to change your title. Just click the "report this post to a mod" button, and ask. :)

Thanks, guess I could have done that too, oh well, this was just as easy. Thanks for the advice.

I have a 4 line. They look a bit like a green 6 line, they're smaller, and less aggressive.

Thanks, that seems like an interesting idea cardiffgiant.

By the way, that tank is a neat concept. Would you mind sharing a few pics of the whole setup (filtration, lighting, etc)? Also, did oyu do anything special to wall mount it?

Here's my 4 line (something called a 12 line). He's pretty hard to get a picture of.

[IMG]http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z85/bturcan/DSC01140.jpg[/IMG]

Hi cardiffgiant -
Thanks! Yes, I have a build thread going in the nano forums with tons of pics and descriptions:
[url]http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1273507[/url]

That's a nice fish - he's pretty cool! I think I'd be just as happy with that instead of a sixline.

Just chiming in to say that is a hot tank. I'm going to have to look into one of those for the future. Will be checking out your build thread!

Thanks Onte! Glad you like it!