What to do with two new tanks?

My 40 gallon brackish tank is chugging along just fine, and I was recently given a 30-gallon and a 10-gallon--both complete with filters and hoods. Not quite sure what I'm going to do with them. I've thought about putting an oyster toad in the 30-gallon (afraid to put one in the main tank; will likely eat everything in sight) and dabbling in fresh water with the 10-gallon. Any better ideas out there?

i know your interested in oyster reefs so why not try one? You could have an oyster toad to but it will eventually outgrow the tank probably.

I'm hoping my 40-gallon will become an oyster reef, assuming I can figure out how to keep the oysters fed. I've got two live oysters in there now that have been there for a week. The tank is under a window, so it's prone to growing algae, possibly enough to keep one or two fed. I can collect algae nearby. I was really interested to read what you posted about the coral food. Next time I'm at the pet store, I'll look into that.

Last week, I made some reef-like formations using oyster shells and mortar. I have them curing in the water at the marina where I keep my boat. I'm hoping some live critters will attach themselves in the meantime.

On a side note--these faux reefs make great habitat traps. I've got them in a wide milk crate, and when I pull them up, all sorts of crabs and minnnows are swimming around them. All I'd need to do is put some netting in there, and I would have a good source for tank additions. Still hoping to find some more skilletfish.

I bet that habitat trap is a good way to catch some blennys. My 6-7 oysters are doing well on the coral food. One pack comes with like 30-40 days worth of feeding if you have like 7 oysters like me. I feed a half of a cube each day. I think you could turn the tank into a oyster reef farely easily.
My other idea was to buy some algae wafers and grind them up with water to make like an algae shake. The coral food is more nutritious though. I wish I had a private area to set traps up. Last time we went fishing I set my only two minnow traps close to the boat dock, both were stolen after a few hours later.

Edited by Amazon, 30 August 2009 - 08:37 PM.

From what I've read oysters are quite difficult to keep long term in home aquariums. They seem to do fine for a while, but it apparently takes mollusks quite a long time to starve to death. I'd make it a point to target feed each and every oyster a few times a day, and keep a close eye on each one a well as water quality. Having a couple of dead ones rotting in the tank could lead to pretty quick tank crash.

If you're rock is cooking in the wild, then it's pretty sure to have lots of critters when you get it back home. Just keep it submerged, and you might want to quarantine it to observe what you got before adding it to an established tank. I've had a couple of crabs that didn't play nice in my reef tanks.

From what I've read oysters are quite difficult to keep long term in home aquariums. They seem to do fine for a while, but it apparently takes mollusks quite a long time to starve to death. I'd make it a point to target feed each and every oyster a few times a day, and keep a close eye on each one a well as water quality. Having a couple of dead ones rotting in the tank could lead to pretty quick tank crash.

If you're rock is cooking in the wild, then it's pretty sure to have lots of critters when you get it back home. Just keep it submerged, and you might want to quarantine it to observe what you got before adding it to an established tank. I've had a couple of crabs that didn't play nice in my reef tanks.

@Amazon--Sorry to hear about your traps! My marina is far from private, but I've had good luck so far. You never know when some moron will come along, however, with nothing better to do than mess with other people's property. Just gotta shrug it off and move on, hope they grow up someday. Hope you're right about the blennies--I've never caught one of those!

@Clayton--Crabs are definitely some ornery creatures. Blue crabs set themselves up to ambush by burying themselves so only their eye stalks protrude. Innocent minnow wanders by, and WHAM! Wild Kingdom in the aquarium. I once had a fairly mature mud crab in with a juvenile blue crab. The mud crab caught the blue crab and quite systematically stripped all its appendages, then left it to die. I figure it was genetic programming; it knew that someday that little blue crab would be bigger and badder and out to get him. I never feel the least guilty eating crab legs, knowing how vicious they are!

BTW--How would you target feed an oyster? Use a turkey baster, or some such?

geez this is an old thread. Are you still there piscator? I used a turkey baster to inject the coral food into there mouths. I turned the tnak into a freshwater setup, but i am probably going to set up another tank for brackish. I gave up on getting striped blennies. i caught a few molloy millers for my saltwater tank though.