Also want to say them just being in the background I find myself looking at them as much as the rest of the coral and fish they have their own little personalities and are very entertaining
Overlooked inverts: What are the common misconceptions of invertebrates in reef aquarium?
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That starfish are hard to keep and need perfect water quality! My starfish Cookie has been happily living in my high nutrient reef tank for almost a year. And yes they need to be fed regularly.
I feel like there are misconceptions about every single invertebrate in the hobby!
The biggest misconception is assuming all invertebrates share the same conceptions.
Its such a diverse group of animals that any general rule of thumb or concept you come up with about them can be contradicted by 1 individual species of the same family, sometimes genus.
Every starfish is different in some way, every shrimp is different in some way, every octopus is invading earth differently, and every crab is a different department of the IRS.
One claim about starfish may work for 2 or 3 of them, and then for others you're suddenly spending hours and hours researching what others spent years trying to figure out how to keep alive.
Its such a diverse group of animals that any general rule of thumb or concept you come up with about them can be contradicted by 1 individual species of the same family, sometimes genus.
Every starfish is different in some way, every shrimp is different in some way, every octopus is invading earth differently, and every crab is a different department of the IRS.
One claim about starfish may work for 2 or 3 of them, and then for others you're suddenly spending hours and hours researching what others spent years trying to figure out how to keep alive.
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I think a big one is assuming all the hermits are the same. Sure reefers understand that the big hermits are different. However, even amongst the smaller hermits there are difference.
For example, I learned the hard way that Halloween Hermits are NOT safe for Macros. However, they are much more "chill" than Dwarf Zebra Hermits.
Dwarf Zebra Hermits like meat a lot more than Halloween Hermits, and will bully other denizens to get some.
I haven't had the pleasure of keeping other hermit species yet, but I imagine there are probably behaviour differences between scarlets, electric blue, dwarf blue leg, and dwarf red leg as well.
For example, I learned the hard way that Halloween Hermits are NOT safe for Macros. However, they are much more "chill" than Dwarf Zebra Hermits.
Dwarf Zebra Hermits like meat a lot more than Halloween Hermits, and will bully other denizens to get some.
I haven't had the pleasure of keeping other hermit species yet, but I imagine there are probably behaviour differences between scarlets, electric blue, dwarf blue leg, and dwarf red leg as well.
Electric blues have always been miss or.. miss for me.
Not sure why electric blues particularly are problematic, but all of them disappear very quickly. Once I had one that would sit perched at the top of the tank, literally sit on top of a year dead frogspawn branch. I moved it to the other side of the aquarium after day 2 of it being there... and it immediately ran right back to that same exact spot until it died. This was a 125 gallon and the branch was in the far right corner. I have no clue why it did this but all of them just seem to do poorly for me and this was the weirdest example.
Other the other hand my Calcinus laevnimanus (blue eye'd hermit) was very active, model citizen, until recently when I started added new frags to the tank and he'd immediately run for those frags like they're food and lift the plugs off the rock. This was my favorite species until I had to sump it while I added new frags to the tank.
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I remember early days of hobby where I unleashed an epic battle from Garf with 50 hermits and 100 snails.
Now I have 2-4 urchins, and 3 tank rats and proud of breeding trochus all over system. Less is more!!
Now I have 2-4 urchins, and 3 tank rats and proud of breeding trochus all over system. Less is more!!
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In my experience, each reef setup tends to sort itself out, supporting a certain number of inverts. For instance, I will add trochus snails to our 120 mixed reef, always ending up with around 8 that stick around for a long time. Same thing with crabs. Once a tank is established, depending on the mix of inverts and overall type and amount of daily feeding, I will pay attention to that number, trying not to push too hard past it. If I do, I just end up with additional shells and die off. If I am looking for increased algae grazing activity, I tend to add urchins instead. I haven't actually defined a max number of urchins, but they can get out of hand, carrying all sorts of bits of coral rubble around the tank. Handy thing is, they find all of the shells that the dead snails left behind and carry them out into the open.
Territory:
I see purchases based on if they are compatible with other life in the tank, but I never see a talk about territory.
The small ones will fit in, but if we are looking at Stenopus and sorts, they are very territorial. They defend with claws and will cut into fins from fish.
I never see this question when I am in a store. We always ask what it eats and if it's reefsafe, but they need a fairly large cave like place to live. Mine has at least a territory of 30x30x30cm. No fish can sleep here in the night. That whole space is his.
So in these cases you could argue that choosing between a Tang and a Stenopus is about the same. They both need a sleeping area that is noteworthy.
I can't add a Tang sizes fish due to sleeping problems. The tank itself is fine, but there is nowhere to sleep. If I would remove the Stenopsus, I could add 2 Tang sized fish.
I see purchases based on if they are compatible with other life in the tank, but I never see a talk about territory.
The small ones will fit in, but if we are looking at Stenopus and sorts, they are very territorial. They defend with claws and will cut into fins from fish.
I never see this question when I am in a store. We always ask what it eats and if it's reefsafe, but they need a fairly large cave like place to live. Mine has at least a territory of 30x30x30cm. No fish can sleep here in the night. That whole space is his.
So in these cases you could argue that choosing between a Tang and a Stenopus is about the same. They both need a sleeping area that is noteworthy.
I can't add a Tang sizes fish due to sleeping problems. The tank itself is fine, but there is nowhere to sleep. If I would remove the Stenopsus, I could add 2 Tang sized fish.
Dwarf Zebras(AKA blue eyed, orange and black hermits, etc.) I have found to be willing to try to eat anything added to the tank. Crabs have a memory of about 3 days, and they will pick up on habits. So if you are feeding daily, they will come to associate anything added to the tank as potential food.
Also, your electric blue chose the frogspawn as its house. They will pick a "cave" as their territory and sit there for days at a time. That's normal for hermits. Another reason they may sit around is a molt. They become lethargic for two-ish days, pop off the exoskeleton, and then sit around two days while they regain their energy and let the new one harden. Don't move them during this unless you absolutely have to.
Yes!!! People I come across think emerald crabs are evil. My emerald crab comes out when I come near the tank and stretches his claws out for a piece of nori algae and takes it from my hand! Best crab ever
id say that in a reef tank you need a predator for certain things, most people say you should use these snails , these crabs, etc., it is kind of like aptasia, most use some type of chemical to remove them, but needless to say if you find the right predator for them itself eradicates , like peppermint shrimp or a file fish, these are common predators of aptasia, why add chemicals to your reef when you can use a natural killer, CUC can vary amongst different types, honestly most reefers totally forget about copepod species and what they actually do besides food, so I'd say for most tank pests or algae to find the predator you'll benefit more, plus you have more cool stuff in your tank minus the regular fish, coral crabs, snails just my 23 cents
The clean up crews main job is to turn algae and uneaten fish food into nitrates more efficiently which can then be removed by nutrient export such as skimmers and refugiums.
I have learned that crabs require a bit more care than I initially anticipated. Sure, many of them will eat almost anything, but they tend to be picky more often than not, get stuck, fight, etc. They are also my favorite creatures to keep!
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Misinformation about sea slug dietary habits are one of the worst and most pervasive in my opinion. All nudibranchs are highly specialist carnivores but I constantly see claims by vendors about them eating algae. They're probably just searching everywhere for the single genus of sponge or hydroid they predate while they slowly starve to death. Lettuce sea slugs *are* herbivorous, but are also specialized and need live macro algae within a narrow taxonomic range - yet I constantly see them sold with generic "marine herbivore" copy about supplementing their diet with dried (ie. dead) nori or claiming they'll consume film algae.
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