So I have a ordering question now.

Emeralds are very bad in reefs.

Pistol shrimp, my experience (I bought 2 WITH gobies as pairs) as soon as I put them both in the tank they went their seperate ways, never to be paired again. Watchman gobies are not the best pairing for pistol shrimp if I recall.. kinda like a condy anemone/clown pairing up.. better chance of it not happening.

There are other gobies, forgot the names (barber pole looking goby) as well as the Yasha goby (expensive!) that are better for pairing up with a pistol shrimp.

Remember, pistol shrimp EAT cleaner shrimp in the wild. I have no idea how my cleaner survived so long.. only guess is it has always been close to the same size as my japanese pistol, but I am very worried about the next cleaner I need to add.

I ordered a tiger pistol and pink spotted goby (C. Leptocephalus together from an online retailer, acclimated them seperatly but introduced them to the tank together in the same corner in hopes of helping them pair. The shrimp ran towards the goby who immedeatly chomped down on his large claw and ripped it off. They went their seperate ways but were paired about a month later, so my advice for them would be just give them time.
Also, I had a peppermint and a cleaner shrimp in the tank when I introduced him, after about a month (probably when his big claw had developed again) he killed both, so i would be cautious keeping other shrimp with the pistol shrimp.
Finally, i think peoples experience with emerald crabs varries a lot, I have had 5 emeralds in my 75 gallon reef since the first cleaner crew when i set it up, and never had a problem with them. The emeralds will do a better job scavanging and cleaning then the porcelain crabs, who are very cool but spend most of their time hiding out on the rock filter feeding

How many $100 colonies of zoas do you have Andy1130? It only takes losing one $120 blue colony to a emerald to never want to try that again. Sorry, but a $10 crab eating a $120 zoa colony is not cool.

It is just one of those things.. you may get lucky and have a nice emerarld, but you probably have a 90-95% chance your going to get one that eats certain polyps.

Ok guys...I will be placing a order at the end of the week for my first "tank mate" purchase. I need to know should I start out w/ buying clean up crew first (which I have some hermits) or fish, or should I buy like some snails and 2 fish? I guess I just need to know what order to put things in the tank??

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In my opinion you go back and forth with the purchases. You start with some clean up crew, add a fish or two, add more clean crew that may now be needed and when they have things balanced again you get another fish and start again.

Any idea of numbers for shirmp? I am wanting some peppermint, skunk and sexy I think well and a pistol for my watchman but that one will wait a bit.

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You have a 55g right? In mine, I have 2 scarlet skunks that stay practically glued to one another. I have 8 peppermints. I started with two but rarely saw them so added 6 more. 2 have taken a ride down the overflow and are living in the sump however. I think sexy shrimp are cute but they are so tiny I opted not to get them for fear I'd never see them.

I want an Emerald or Porcalin crab...which would be better and should I order them at the same time

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Porcelain crab all the way, you can get more than one by the way. They are reef safe (filter feeders that do not hunt with their claws). Keep in mind that Anemone crabs are sometimes mistakingly labeled as porcelain crabs but they are also reef safe. On the emeralds, the troubles with them tend to occur when they get larger and I've seen video of one even attacking a yellow tank by dropping on it while sleeping much the same way a green brittlestar will.