Symbiotic Inverts list

[Aleelupton]

Hello all! As a freshwater shrimp breeder, naturally I would be obsessed with saltwater inverts when jumping into this hobby! I've been looking into all the unique inverts that can be kept in a reef tank and have become interested in symbiotic inverts and their "partners" in the aquarium. Inverts I currently know about are Pistol shrimp and goby pairs, Flame Scallops and Lima shrimp, Acros/porties and Acro crabs, anemones and anemone crabs, clowns and anemones, pom pom crabs and their pom anemones, and decorator crabs and their various hitchhikers. What other inverts have symbiotic relationships and would be cool to keep in a reef tank? Feel free to share pictures of your inverts!

 

[Stomatopods17]

Cleaner shrimp and fish

Emperor shrimp and Medusa worms

Pistol shrimp and curly q anemones

Turbo snails and my floor

 

[PharmrJohn]

Cleaner shrimp and fish

Emperor shrimp and Medusa worms

Pistol shrimp and curly q anemones

Turbo snails and my floor

I've been wondering where my Turbos have been going.....To your house!

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Love the topic - there are way too many to actually mention, but some that 1 ) can at least occasionally be found in the hobby, 2 ) haven't already been mentioned, and 3 ) aren't parasitic include:

conches and conch fish, green-banded gobies and rock-boring urchins, and the starfish shrimp (Zenoptonia soror - not to be confused with the emperor shrimp, Zenoptonia rex) and starfish.

Lottini pistol shrimp (Alpheus lottini):

These guys don't pair with gobies, but they do have symbiotic relationships with Pocilloporid (family Pocilloporidae) corals. I'm not sure what their preferred species are, but they are known to inhabit Pocillopora damicornis for certain. They clean the corals and defend them from predation.

Walking Dendros and their peanut worm:

Heteropsammia cochlea is found in loose substrate (fine/sandy to coarse/gravelly) generally in relatively depths down to about 40 meters (with 8-20 meters being more typical, though they're not terribly uncommon down in the 30-40 meters range). As mentioned, they have a symbiotic relationship with the Sipunculan (peanut worm), Apsidosiphon (Aspidosiphon) muelleri, and with a cryptoendolithic (it hides inside the stony skeleton of the coral with the peanut worm) bivalve species, Jousseaumia sp. (A.K.A. Jousseaumiella sp.). I would assume Jousseaumia heteropsammiae, but I don't know for certain.

 

[BristleWormHater]

Not really symbiotic but christmas tree worm colonies are pretty neat.

 

[Aleelupton]

Cleaner shrimp and fish

Emperor shrimp and Medusa worms

Pistol shrimp and curly q anemones

Turbo snails and my floor

I have been looking at the Perderson cleaner shrimp.

My plan is to add a lid so hopefully my snail won't end up on the floor, lol!

 

[Aleelupton]

Love the topic - there are way too many to actually mention, but some that 1 ) can at least occasionally be found in the hobby, 2 ) haven't already been mentioned, and 3 ) aren't parasitic include:

Lottini pistol shrimp (Alpheus lottini):

Walking Dendros and their peanut worm:

That's an awesome list! Thank you so much! I will have to look into those. Inverts are so fascinating and I find myself more interested in them than anything else! I've been looking at a lot of threads on this forum for a while and I was hoping you would comment on my thread!

 

[Aleelupton]

Not really symbiotic but christmas tree worm colonies are pretty neat.

Yes! I think these are so cool!

 

[Joel j]

Awesome thread you have started here, I too am jumping into the saltwater Hobbie and have a huge intrest in the inverts.

 

[BristleWormHater]

I got another suggestion for you: the walking dendro coral. It is a dendrophyllia that has a symbiotic relationship with a peanut worm inside the coral. The peanut worms sits in a hole at the bottom of the coral and moves around hence "walking" dendro.

 

[Aleelupton]

Awesome thread you have started here, I too am jumping into the saltwater Hobbie and have a huge intrest in the inverts.

I can tell by your profile picture! We breed/sell freshwater shrimp for a living so naturally we love the saltwater inverts too!

 

[Knucker]

Cleaner wrass and any other fish, Skillet fish and fungia plate coral, Cosmic Nano Goby will host a fungia also. Clowns are funny it's not just anemones they will host, anemones, toadstool coral, Goniopora, water heaters, they are not picky. Pom Pom crabs are awesome if they only have 1 anemone and no other crab to steal one from. They will frag the one into two. My Pom Pom Crab Uno did it.