Unusual inverts for 10 gallon

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

Hi everyone! I was curious...besides corals, anemones, shrimp, hermit crabs, and snails, what - if any - inverts can be kept in a 10 gallon tank? Thanks 🙂

[AbnormalReefer]

Tuxedo Urchins

Starfish (Difficult in captivity)

Brittle Stars

Camel Shrimp (Not reef safe)

Harlequin Shrimp (Only eats starfish)

Fighting Conch

Lettuce Nudibranch

Longspine Urchin (Gets too big and venomous for a 10 gallon, but you can keep a juvenile)

 

 

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

What starfishes and brittle stars would fit in a 10 comfortably? Also, what care do they require?

[AbnormalReefer]

Just now, AlmightyJoshaeus said:

What starfishes and brittle stars would fit in a 10 comfortably? Also, what care do they require?

You could fit Fromia stars and sand sifting stars. The Fromia are not usually long lived in captivity. People claim that the sand sifting star doesn’t live long either, but I call bullocks. My friend has had one for nearly 3 years going strong.

 

Brittle stars are quite easy to take care of compared to “regular” starfish. These will really catch an unsuspecting guest’s eye. They will grab pieces of shrimp (grocery store shrimp) that you feed them. They can also go with normal flake food and frozen. Beware though, I’ve seen large brittle stars catch slow fish and cleaner shrimps. However, these ones were over 12 inches long and probably years old.

 

 

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

Which of these critters is macroalgae safe?

[AbnormalReefer]

Tuxedo Urchins - Never trust an urchin with algae

Starfish (Difficult in captivity) - Most are safe (including the ones I’ve mentioned)

Brittle Stars - Safe

Camel Shrimp (Not reef safe) - Safe but will nip at soft corals and polyps.

Harlequin Shrimp (Only eats starfish) - Only eats starfish

Fighting Conch - Safe

Lettuce Nudibranch - Not Safe

Longspine Urchin (Gets too big and venomous for a 10 gallon, but you can keep a juvenile) - Never trust an urchin 

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

OK! Thanks 🙂

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

What do the fighting conches eat?

[Clown79]

Urchins are difficult to keep a live in  nano's. They eat particular algaes and can be a pain with corals.

 

Starfish- never recommended in nano's. Fromia are especially difficult.

 

Conch are great but should be added after a few mnths. They need food to survive and new sandbeds often don't offer enough.

 

 

Good nano inverts: porcelain crabs, sexy shrimp, cleaner shrimp, pistol shrimp, harlequin shrimp(special diet and care required), pom pom crabs, Halloween crab, scarlet hermits.

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

Would all of these get along with a pistol shrimp? I already have one.

[Joevember]

Sponge/tunicate if you really want a challenge.

[AlmightyJoshaeus]

How about tube anemones?

[Joevember]

1 minute ago, AlmightyJoshaeus said:

How about tube anemones?

Yeah, those will work well. My lfs has some in a small zero edge tank. Maybe 20g.

[FlytheWMark]

+1 on the Sexy Shrimp... we added two a few weeks ago and whenever any comes over they are the most popular.  Only problem I have with one of them is that it loves jumping up and down on my rock anemone simply pissing it off all of the time.  Other than that they are great.

[Clown79]

1 hour ago, Mark L. said:

+1 on the Sexy Shrimp... we added two a few weeks ago and whenever any comes over they are the most popular.  Only problem I have with one of them is that it loves jumping up and down on my rock anemone simply pissing it off all of the time.  Other than that they are great.

They are cute! 

 

What invert doesn't annoy corals with their behaviour? Lol

 

 

[KNelson]

5 hours ago, AbnormalReeder said:

People claim that the sand sifting star doesn’t live long either, but I call bullocks. My friend has had one for nearly 3 years going strong.

It highly depends on the tank.  It's food source in a nano is very small and in the end you are left with a sand bed devoid of life.  I know, I had one for 9 months and watched it withering away for 2 months before I found it a new home.  The only things in my sand now are a few worms that likely hid out in my rocks during the slaughter. 

 

Now if you had a large tank with lots of sand that would be a different story.

 

 

 

I have a bongo shrimp, a much smaller and less deadly relative of the harlequin.  He eats asterina and micro-brittle starfish (perhaps the tube feet but I've yet to find a dead starfish).  He's cute. 

 

 

[jesseatam]

Porcelain crabs are incredibly cool, everyone who sees mine comments on it. There's also many other types of true crabs that people get as hitchhikers and such but many have questionable "reef-safeness" and are opportunistic. In your original post you pretty much listed off most of the types of inverts commonly kept in aquariums besides like worms, cephalopods (incredibly advanced), and bivalves lol.

[mndfreeze]

I'm a invert lover.  Fish are boring (but necessary I guess....)  I have a 24G aquapod mixed reef.  

 

Fire shrimp

Pom Pom crab

2 porcelain crabs (one adult, one baby)  They host different sides of the tank.

Tiger pistol shrimp and roomie yellow watchman goby

Harlequin serpent star

sexy shrimp

Hawaiian feather duster

blue legged (triolor) hermits and red reef hermits

ninja star snails

trochus snails

1 nerite that hasn't carpet surfed yet

nassarius snails

3 species of cerith snail

 

I'm still on the hunt for more oddball style inverts but the problem is most either have tough diet requirements, such as the harlequin shrimp or bongo shrimp, or are incompatible with a mixed reef or other members of the tank.  

 

Now that my stylophora coral is getting bigger I will probably get an acro crab for it.  Also looking to get a baby tiger tail cucumber because they are amazing at cleaning sand but eventually will outgrow the tank and need to be moved.  That will be many years down the road though.  

 

If I ever get any mini maxi nems I might get an anenome shrimp like a pedersons or something, but I question how well they will do without a proper host.  Also will probably pick up a few more feather dusters and a coco worm if I find a good price on one.

 

 

 

 

 

[el_ote]

These are a couple of my favorite!

Squat lobster.

these guys are great and super funny to watch. 

Also there's the Halloween hermit crab:

 

I don't have any sexy shrimp, but once i get a maxi mini or a rock flower anemone (do they host here?) i'm going to snag a triplet set

[Tamberav]

Sexy shrimp don't need nems.. when I had nems they used it at first and then realized there is no big predators and ran off to go sit on anything but the nem. Not long ago someone posted their gorg coral covered in a ton of sexy shrimp hanging out. 

 

My porcelain nem crab doesn't use the nems much either. 

[el_ote]

really!!! i may just snag the sexies first then!

ohhh i forgot about the porcelain crab. those are totally one of my faves. i love the white spotted ones! too bad they hide so much.

[mndfreeze]

There are multiple species of porcelain crabs, 2 of which we see in the hobby regularly.  The white spotted anemone porcelain crab is the one that usually hosts nems and such.  That's what I have 2 of.  The baby sits under my hammer coral frag and the adult sits at the top of the tank right next to an acro colony where the powerhead blasts.

 

The others are the green striped ones that come from the gulf of mexico and surrounding areas.  They tend not to host things and are a lot more secretive.  I had one of those years ago and I almost never saw it.  The anemone ones are fairly ballsy and sit right out in the open.