peppermint are generally fish safe - unless the fish is small and dying

Have a 2g reef tank fluval edge for about 2 months everything is going great. Over the Christmas had an impulse buy of a yellow clown goby and a peppermint shrimp. First mistake was not checking whether the fish eats at LFS due to boxing day, every was 1/2 price and people were frantic. Perhaps my 2nd mistake: 2g tank cannot hold ANY fish - even one smallest fish possible on the market. Needless to say he did not eat, and got ich (3rd mistake - bad LFS perhaps), and started flap its gills fast, belly up and float/drift around after 2 weeks. Used kordon ich attach basically useless.

Then I saw the peppermint shrimp starting to have stalking behavior and dried to catch the fish twice but the fish got away. Naturally I want my fish to die peacefully and then take him out of the tank immediately (to avoid ammonia). So I fully (or I should say over) fed the shrimp until he could not eat anymore.

He was docile for a little but within an hour I saw the fish struggled and he actually caught the fish and (I hypothesize) was about to eat him. So I stopped it and took the fish out from slow painful death. I guess I can let nature take its course but I don't have the heart to see him eaten alive.

So far my the peppermint have not touched my reef or snail though ~ Cause they are healthy I guess. It does clean up any left over food .. but more it steals food from coral and fish as well. Even eat the algae tablet for the snails. Nowadays when he sees the turkey baster he climbs on it and poke its tentacles into the baster. If I put my hand he climbs on it too. Eats anything that is remotely food (related). It is very alive in a 2g tank that's for sure easy to maintain. Usually turkey baster feed him every other day he eats pods otherwise. He is the sole producer of bioload, which produces a little bit of nitrate to sustain (soft) coral, and some algae for the snail.

 

some peppermnt shrimp are like that i had one that attacked my hand when i put in the tank, and stole food from my starfish

 

umm why don't you set up a hospital tank, treat the fish, and find it a new home?

 

^Biggest mistake. Kordon Ich Attack will kill your reef as well as the occasional fish. In fact on the bottle it says that if your corals or fish are unhealthy before treatment they may not survive. I always use Hypo, or Herbtana Microbe lift.

Throw the kordon out and get some herbtana. Also 2 gallons, you could get away with a micro goby, I believe.
Odds are your shrimp was more likely trying to clean it, and your hand as well, my shrimp always does this. they are in fact cleaners and that is what they do. yellow gobies should eat flake food no problem ime so it was obviously stressed from being cramped.

 

Most any crustacean can be an opportunistic predator. That can be a good thing if their prey is sick and dying. As long as he isn't going for healthy livestock, you'll be fine with him.

 

if he hasnt done that already im guessing he doesnt have the capability to set up a hospital tank and does not have an existing one.

 

You are definitely right about a 2 gallon. It is small.
What kind of rock and or sand do you have in it? When you cycle a tank properly what you've essentially done is grown the correct amount of nitrifying bacteria for your system. When you add more organisms to that system, you have to add slowly so that the bacteria can keep up with the bio load that is being produced. Now, if this were a 30g tank, the shift in water to ammonia ratio would be far less than in a 2g system. What you have is a micro tank, and the only way you're going to keep the water pure with out 3/4 rock in there is to do daily water changes. I would avoid chemicals completely in there simply due to them out competing the oxygen once added.

 

i have seen people keep clown gobies in 2 gallon tanks successfully, it was probably all the moving around that stressed the fish so badly that he succumbed to ich. which really got you off to a bad start. you should ask the lfs when their fish got shipped in to avoid this in the future. but its happened to all of us.

 

All it would take him is a tupperware tote, a small heater, and an AIRSTONE! Get some medication to get the little guy cleared up and hopefullly healthy again!

And based upon, his lack of experience in this hobby, he may not have heard of a hospital tank! But they're very easy to set up and would be a very cheap option to maybe save the poor lil guys life!

 

fish already died.

The fish actually died the same night and yes I wasn't ready nor have the capability to setup a hospital tank fast enough (that is why I got ich attack because it is reef safe. Well it is but it did not save my fish so its useless).

I suspect the real problem I believe is not the ich (only), it's that it doesn't eat. I have read many times that yellow clown goby does that. I know everyone says its a beginner fish ~ but not if it does not eat. Also even though I know people who can keep A fish in a 2g it does seriously stresses it (even if it is a micro goby which is what I got). I will have to keep that into serious consideration if I want a fish again.

Everything else in the tank (fluval spec 2g) is fine now. I am actually happy as this is my first tank. I have 3x zoas, 1x richs, 2x starpolyp and 1x favia LPS, 1 peppermint, 1 trochus and they are all doing great. Mod the tank to have a 10w heater in the sump and an extra LED light for corals. Took out the biofilter just mech and chem only. Total spent around $300 bucks including tank, all corals, livestocks, 2 lbs live rocks, 3/4" live sand, food (mysis + pellets + marine snow), salts, test kits and chemicals (prime, 8.4 ph reef, purpleup, cycle).

The shrimp is getting bolder and bolder but it is fun to watch him play and eat off the turkey baster. Also turkey bast the rich and LPS. Trochus snail is cleaning the tank nicely and I have a healthy supply of copepods. Now I feed the shrimp once every 2 days bioload is low but enough to have some algae for the snail to eat. I do weekly water changes 15% (done with in 3 mins).

ammonia 0, salinity 1.25, nitrate 10, nitrite 0, alk 180, ph 8 - 8.2, temp 76f during that time, all the time after cycled. (until I use ich attach it pollutes the tank BTW). I put in pH balance every now and then, "purple it up" for calcium and iodine, weekly water changes for other missed trace elements and nitrates export. The tank is suprisingly easy to take care of. No need to feed the tank for 3 day trips and 1 week trip I can use an auto feeder.