Invertebrate tank

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Pseudomugil

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Nov 11, 2014
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Not too long ago I started a thread about a small little 3 gallon tank for hermit crabs only, but I have a spare 10 gallon tank and I want to do an invertebrate tank. Some inverts I'm interested in are:

- blue leg hermit crabs (must)
- scarlet hermit crabs (must)
- zebra hermit crabs
- emerald crab
- peppermint shrimp
- blue tuxedo urchin
- astrea or nassarius snail
- chocolate chip sea star (I really want a sea star, and the cc is my favourite, but I don't really know another easier to keep option and I'd prefer to not have a brittle/serpent star)
- crinoid squat lobster
- pompom crab

What stock list could I do out of these creatures? I also might want to add some sort of little fish in the future. I like ocellaris clownfish, yellow clown goby, neon goby, and yellowtail damsel.
 
Looks like a great plan you just need to make sure there's enough algae and stuff for them to feed on

Think that tank is a bit small for an urchin I think. I'm no salty expert maybe this can be a good bump.


Caleb
 
Urchins eat nothing but algae so I would hold off on them in a nano, they can also be a little bulldozer. They rest looks good but remover hermits usually do what they want, including attacking each other even if there is any spare shells.
One more options on this could be sexy shrimp, by far the best shrimp for a nano
 
choc chip will starve 10g is way to small anyhow, I wouldn't recommend a urchin in 10g
I wouldn't do blue legs if you want scarlet's they'll kill each other off
every thing else looks ok
 
Pom pom crab is a great idea :) I've seen them kept in .5 gallon tanks (cruel, but possible). I had two of them. One had no anemones and the other had both. Somehow the one with both made theirs split and gave them to the other one.
 
Pom pom crab is a great idea :) I've seen them kept in .5 gallon tanks (cruel, but possible). I had two of them. One had no anemones and the other had both. Somehow the one with both made theirs split and gave them to the other one.

I read they chop them/ frag them to have 2!

How cute, lol.

Every time I try to buy these they are out of stock at the lfs!!!

I have Camel Shrimp in my nano. they are very striking and move strangely like a wasp, or robotic shrimp or something, it kinda creeped me out at first. They are in the nano tank, the main reason was that they will eat some corals or could possible eat some corals. I feed mine a varied diet and don't see them picking on any of the couple of frags I have in the 5G nano. I have 2 and they have doubled in size since I got them. I would like to get several more as I understand they like a group.

In that tank I added a couple of blue leg Hermits (extra shells) and Chaeto, and some Halimeda, there is also some black Codium, Gracillaria.

There are Dwarf Cerith snails, Dwarf Planaxis, Nassarius Vibex (not vegetarians) they make me smile every time I feed them...little snorkle pops out of the substrate and then some sand shaking and out pops a snails, never gets old, lol!!! You can tell I like them :lol:

Nerite snail, Astrea snail, tons of pods growing like crazy. Got most of the snails and stuff from John at Reef Cleaners (very generous)

I wanted a nice SW tank with lots of macroalgaes but then I got an Urchin..... he eats anything macroalgae, and fast! I cant even grow the dreaded Calerpa because he eats it before it gets established!!! So I feed him Nori and he lives in my 35G and I have a 5G macroalgae tank instead.

my tank has been up almost a year and I do not have filtration other than live rock and sand do pwc or .5-1 gallon every 7-10 days. Depending on my schedule but also how much I have been feeding. I feel the tank has been very successful for the inhabitants. The air bubbler causes lots of salt creep so I am considering changing to a different tank for it, like a 6.6G Edge. It is in a Fluval Chi with top cover minus the center filter.

Here is the tank back in August 2014. Not so much red Macro algae as the Urchin ate most of it. The sand is Garnet sand I reused from my FW tank after drying and cleaning it.
60074-albums13960-picture67374.jpg
 
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What about a red thorny sea star, echinaster echinophorus? Live aquaria says they get to 10", but in a display tank at the lfs they've had one for MANY years in a 10 gallon with coral and anemones and it's never gotten larger than 2".
 
almost every star is out of the question in a 10g they would most likely die in a week
your only choices would be serpent star , or brittle star
as for your pet store keeping a star in a 10g that don't make it right
if that's how they treat livestock I would find a better fish store as they will only mislead you
yes it is possible to stunt the outer body's growth but the internal organs don't stop growing causing things inside to contract shortening that creatures life now does that make it right ,
take this for example take a small balloon fill it with air till it's full , now add more air what happens it bursts , I don't think the star would find that comfortable
Live aquara has a good example of proper tank size for all fish and inverts along with size charts

Red Thorny Star / Also Known as The Red Knob Sea Star (Protoreaster linckii)

img_3256758_0_f5b34200db08e6b9d3b277e638b2a593.png
 
Please remember to keep things on topic of the original post so we can best help out Pseudomugil. Further off topic posts will result in the thread being closed. Thank you.
 
almost every star is out of the question in a 10g they would most likely die in a week
your only choices would be serpent star , or brittle star
as for your pet store keeping a star in a 10g that don't make it right
if that's how they treat livestock I would find a better fish store as they will only mislead you
yes it is possible to stunt the outer body's growth but the internal organs don't stop growing causing things inside to contract shortening that creatures life now does that make it right ,
take this for example take a small balloon fill it with air till it's full , now add more air what happens it bursts , I don't think the star would find that comfortable
Live aquara has a good example of proper tank size for all fish and inverts along with size charts

Red Thorny Star / Also Known as The Red Knob Sea Star (Protoreaster linckii)

img_3261075_0_f5b34200db08e6b9d3b277e638b2a593.png


Sorry I haven't been home for a while. That is not the sea star I'm interested in. I'm looking at echinaster echinophorus, which I have read the exact kind my lfs gets in only grows to 2" and is reef safe.
 
Sorry I haven't been home for a while. That is not the sea star I'm interested in. I'm looking at echinaster echinophorus, which I have read the exact kind my lfs gets in only grows to 2" and is reef safe.


I think (don't take my word for this) they are mainly not recommended for the sole reason of its a small system meaning less nutrients for them to feeding unlike I larger tanks. Like for instance the sand sifters, even in giant 300 gallon systems they have starved to death.


Caleb
 
I think (don't take my word for this) they are mainly not recommended for the sole reason of its a small system meaning less nutrients for them to feeding unlike I larger tanks. Like for instance the sand sifters, even in giant 300 gallon systems they have starved to death.


Caleb

those were the words I was looking for TY Caleb

no matter what size the star small tanks are not a good idea for that exact reason Caleb stated , I've seen stars starve in bigger systems also
I know stars are neat little critters but are the odds of it surviving in a small tank worth it
IMO they are best left out in the wild where they can thrive
consider a serpent star they are neat and have better odds of surviving in captivity , I have 2 reds 3 grays 2 white 2 green in my 90g they are neat to watch at feeding time as you see arms reaching out from the rocks
and when they come out and perch them self's up in the sand to catch food
I feed live feeder fish and shrimp to my fish and inverts it's just fun to see nature at it's best
 
So I guess my final stock would be:

2 blue leg hermit crabs
2 red tip hermit crabs
2 zebra hermit crabs
1 emerald crab
2 peppermint shrimp
2 astrea snails
1 brittle star
(1 pompom crab?)
(1 ocellaris clownfish?)
 
Since this is an invertebrates tank I would leave out the clown. I can tell you in my 10g that my clown inhibits my peppermint shrimp to hide most of the day. If not for him, I'd see the shrimp more often.

You will get best results with no fish.

Also look at sexy shrimp! Cool little dudes but would get eaten by fish.


Caleb
 
Since this is an invertebrates tank I would leave out the clown. I can tell you in my 10g that my clown inhibits my peppermint shrimp to hide most of the day. If not for him, I'd see the shrimp more often.

You will get best results with no fish.

Also look at sexy shrimp! Cool little dudes but would get eaten by fish.


Caleb

Is there any fish that would work better? What about a neon goby? This tank is directed more towards inverts but it would be nice to have some movement in the tank.
 
Is there any fish that would work better? What about a neon goby? This tank is directed more towards inverts but it would be nice to have some movement in the tank.


You could look at a clown or blue neon goby. Much less... Ecstatic and hyper than a clownfish lol


Caleb
 
And would the goby eat the sexy shrimp?

I doubt It don't even think it would fit in there mouth lol I would do a pair 1 yellow 1 blue ,

The red leg hermits I would pass on as they would fight constantly with the other hermits
if your wanting reds do the red scarlet hermits

scarlet shrimp
fire shrimp
 
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