What to do with my Eclipse 6?

[ElMonoDelMar]

I just recently purchased an Eclipse 6, and now I'm trying to figure out what to do with it. I've already got a 20g nano reef that I started 6 months ago, and it's progressing nicely. I bought the 6 gallon as something that I could take to college so that I wouldn't have to drop the salt water hobby altogether.
I really don't know what I want to do with this Eclipse once it finishes cycling. I've had a few ideas:

Seahorses?
I know I'd have to go with dwarf horses for a 6 gallon. The only problem is, I'm afraid they'll be too hard to see in the cualerpa forests and that they might get sucked into the filter.

Black Clown with anemone?
I thought this idea would be cool because I just like clowns and the black ones especially rock. After I thought about it for a while, I don't think I could live with myself after forcing such an awesome animal to only exist in 6 gallons of water.

Nano reef?
I think this would be way too similar to my 20 gallon, minus the fish. I love my 20 to death, but I think a reef without the fish might be a little lacking.

I guess I really just don't know what to do. If anyone has any other ideas, please post here. I'd love to hear suggestions of great ways I could use my 6 gal. Thanks to the forum in advance for all of the help.

[ckreef]

How about a species tank of some sort. Maybe a reef filled only with exotic colored zoo's. Or maybe a mated pair of Harlequin Shrimp eating away at a nice large starfish (all your college buddies will think it's totally cool). I know a few people have done a xenia forest.

I think Seahorses would be a little complicated in a college environment especially the feeding situation.

[ElMonoDelMar]

Harlequin Shrimp eating a sarfish? What all could I put with that setup? Would it just be the mated pair of shrimp, a starfish and little bit of liverock? I don't know if I could stand to watch 2 shrimp slowly tear away at a starfish. I'm not against feeding live food, but the whole slow death process kinda turns me off.

I have a 4 lb hunk of tonga in there now and it has great shape. I'd like to try to keep that and maybe add some cualerpa patches. Do you know of anything other than seahorses that would like to live in that sort of environment?

I think I could do the seahorses if it weren't for the small size of my tank. I plan on getting a job at a petshop when I go to college (I already work at one in my home town now). I figure that would make live food a non-issue.

Also, how about a mantis shrimp? They're very beautiful. I know I'd have to watch my fingers if I got a mantis. Do you think he would decide to break the tank? What other things could I get with a mantis?

[ckreef]

Yea the Harlequin shrimp is a slow death feeding --- but it is how mother nature (God) plaaned it which is why it really doesn't bother me too much.

A Mantis shrimp would work and you shouldn't have a problem with him breaking the tank. Get a large Peacock Mantis. They are very colorfull but sort of stupid and blind. But very neat to have as a species tank. You could probably even have some zoo's, GSP's or shrooms in with him.

I had one once in a 20 gallon with a tail-less Lionfish (long story) but they did well together and never messed with each other.

[NYPathfinder]

My first saltwater endeavour was a 6 gallon eclipse. I had about five pounds of live rock in there, 1" of crushed aragonite and a couple of damsels.
I was very happy with it. My only qualm was that it was too small to get any really cool fish, which is why I upgraded to a 12gal, and ultimately a 29 gallon.
It was a great learning experience (albeit a costly one). Since I was working with such a small h20 volume any changes (ie. algae, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, etc) were noticeable very quickly. It would've cost me a lot more to have gotten the same experience on a larger scale. My advice to you? Experiment with this one.

[biomekanic]

Or, a tiger pistol and yellow goby symbiotic pair

They are very colorfull but sort of stupid and blind.
ummm... we are talking about the same animals, right? The ones that have 16 different color receptors (vs. the 3 humans have), can see into the ultraviolet spectrum, can recognize individuals by appearance and smell, and are generally believed to be at least as bright as an octopus, if not even more intelligent?

[ckreef]

I'm just talking from the experience I had with one.

It was very stupid and very blind. The lionfish in the tank with it was a much smarter predator.

Maybe it was just mine but it was by far the dumbest saltwater creature I have ever owned.

Longnose hawkefish are a far supior predator.

[ruhspolostar]

Yeah Maybe your was just retarded because if a T-Rex and A Mantis Shrimp were the same size, lets just say if the mantis shrimp got any larger at all, no one would have a chance....