Gumdrop Coral Croucher

[Docstach]

Stitch, i am in the same boat as you, looking for something different/unusual for a roughly 18x18x24 area that is walled off from the rest of my reef tank. It used to house my mantis, but unfortunately she died during her last molt. I loved having her, but without the ability to keep any kind of clean up crew in there I had a hard time keeping the algae under control so I was thinking of trying something different. I was thinking maybe a pair of pipefish or something?

 

[STiTCH87]

Stitch, i am in the same boat as you, looking for something different/unusual for a roughly 18x18x24 area that is walled off from the rest of my reef tank. It used to house my mantis, but unfortunately she died during her last molt. I loved having her, but without the ability to keep any kind of clean up crew in there I had a hard time keeping the algae under control so I was thinking of trying something different. I was thinking maybe a pair of pipefish or something?

I considered pipefish and/or seahorses myself, but they need a cold tank and a constant supply of live food so I was like ehhh maybe not... The ones that readily accept frozen need a tank larger than 10g and again would be like the mantis where there's not much you can keep with it and plus i'd be so afraid of a power outage.

 

[Docstach]

I originally really wanted seahorses, but needing colder temps scarred me too. It seems like many more people have had success with pipefish at a bit warmer temps so that is why I started thinking about them. I would have to be really picky too and would only get something already accepting frozen (which I realize would be a rare find). I have toyed with the idea of some type of small scorpion/angler too.

 

[STiTCH87]

I originally really wanted seahorses, but needing colder temps scarred me too. It seems like many more people have had success with pipefish at a bit warmer temps so that is why I started thinking about them. I would have to be really picky too and would only get something already accepting frozen (which I realize would be a rare find). I have toyed with the idea of some type of small scorpion/angler too.

A 10g with the wartskin crossed my mind, but then to not be able to own any other small fish or any inverts turned me off to the idea. The coral croucher is from the scorpionfish family though FWIW.