i am extremely intrested in either a tiger tail or pink cucumber, but no absolutely nothing about them. i'm in the process of converting my 55 fo to a reef. i have a 20 gallon sump with a excaliber skimmer in the sump. the tank has been up and running for nearly 9 months. i was wondering what else i would need to consider, or even if i can consider one of these guys at all. oh yeah, my bio-load in a firefish, skunk clown, 6-line wrasse, and i was also thinking of a green mandarin down the road in a few months. i also have a cleaner shrimp and few snails and 1 or 2 red legged hermits. i always recieve great input from this forum, and i'm looking forward to learning more. just let me know if you need any more information of any kind.
cucumer in a 55 reef?
- Thread starter ded08221
- Start date
If you google 'cuke nuke' you can read up on some of the risks of keeping cukes in your tank. That aside, I have a pair of brown caribbean cukes in my 75g reef and one in my 90 FOWLR and they've impressed the heck out of me. They're only about 5 inches long but they keep the sand spotless (you must use sand about sugar-size,,,, they can't swallow & clean large particles like crushed-coral).
I was worried about them running into the large carpet anemone in my 75g but the anemone doesn't 'fire' when the cukes touch it,, no idea why.
In a 55g you will have to choose between a mandarin and 6-line as they will be competing for the same natural food source (copepods/amphipods etc),,, even if you pile the tank full of good LR, it's unlikely you will be able to maintain a sufficient pod population for just the manadarin,,, let alone a 6-line as well. Even if your 6-line is taking prepared foods during the day,, I'll bet it's still munching pods at night.
My advice would be to forget the mandarin for now,,,, I think you'd need a good-size refugium to support one in a 55g anyway.
Good luck! Post pics for us.
I was worried about them running into the large carpet anemone in my 75g but the anemone doesn't 'fire' when the cukes touch it,, no idea why.
In a 55g you will have to choose between a mandarin and 6-line as they will be competing for the same natural food source (copepods/amphipods etc),,, even if you pile the tank full of good LR, it's unlikely you will be able to maintain a sufficient pod population for just the manadarin,,, let alone a 6-line as well. Even if your 6-line is taking prepared foods during the day,, I'll bet it's still munching pods at night.
My advice would be to forget the mandarin for now,,,, I think you'd need a good-size refugium to support one in a 55g anyway.
Good luck! Post pics for us.
I've had a tigertail for over 6 months now in a 180...he just scoots around the bottom of the tank, mostly during the night. He has been a model citizen.
One minor problem I have experienced, though, is that my purple firefish has set up residence in a piece of LR very, very low to the ground, and when my cuke comes strolling by, it upsets the firefish temporarily. Not a huge deal.
I agree with Juck concerning his fish choice...go with the six-line, and forget about the mandarin...It's just too hard to keep a mandarin long term in a 55g tank, imo.
Good luck!
One minor problem I have experienced, though, is that my purple firefish has set up residence in a piece of LR very, very low to the ground, and when my cuke comes strolling by, it upsets the firefish temporarily. Not a huge deal.
I agree with Juck concerning his fish choice...go with the six-line, and forget about the mandarin...It's just too hard to keep a mandarin long term in a 55g tank, imo.
Good luck!
i have had a tiger cuc, and a caterpilla slug in my 29g for 6 months, he is about 12 inches long when he stretches out, havent had a problem with him, he will go in my 120 when its set up soon but he has been awesome, dont worry about the size of the sand i have a mixture he chomps it up and cleans it all. there awesome.
I looked into having a cuke in my 55 and was told by Dr. Ron over at RC that the tank was too small - needs alot of surface sand space or will starve. I recall there is a formula for how much sand space per inch of cuke - you can do a search over at RC.
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