What critters besides just fish? Humour me..

[Chineseghoststory]

I know this sounds like one of the most annoying, commonly asked questions here, but let me clarify just what I am really asking, which is: *Aside* from a swimming fish or two, snails, hermits, a cleaner shrimp, corals and just maybe an anenome, what is it okay to add to a nano? Yes I did read the posted FAQ and a few articles, etc. before I asked, but I still didn't find a lot of into on this subject.

 

Can we open a discussion about what kinds of urchins and starfish are nano-compatible with maybe a few pictures thrown in? I know you can keep a chocolate star in a nano but I was hoping there would be some kind of other non-predatory starfish that would be nano-safe and that would look a little more, well, eye catching. What have your experiences been with starfish and urchins or other creepy-crawlies? How about clams? Are they (all of them I've mentioned) a hassle to feed?

 

My tank only has a damsel in it right now but I want to know what I can look forward to adding later.

 

Jeff

[tinyreef]

get a humongous fireworm! it'll scare the bejeezus out of anyone wanting to see the 'fishies'!

 

blood shrimp, sexy shrimp, or a cbs are other cool choices. easy to feed too.

 

brittlestars are pretty cool too but too squeamish for me. :x flame scallops are ok, more difficult to feed imo tho.

[printerdown01]

As far as I'm aware choco stars are a no no... A couple of exceptions to the no no lists: a lettuce nudi seems to be fairly nano safe, providing you have enough hair algae for the guy to live on, yellow cucs have also be rumered to be nano-safe! Don't hold me to the latter, but I do believe it to be true considering my sources... Also as far as I'm concerned unless you find some rare dwarf sea urchin they do NOT have a place in a nano tank (they are way more distructive than turbo grazers to your aqua-scaping). I will have to second tiny on the sexy shrimp, as well as add anemone shrimp and anemone crabs (neither require an anemone -my procelian crab or anemone crab took my xenia as a host). If you keep the damsel however, a sexy shrimp might become a $20 snack X) !! Marble stars do fairly well, but these little guys have been rumered to take out small clams (just a warning, I don't know if there is any truth behind that). Up-side down jellies, BUT this should not be attempted by any one who does not have SERIOUS reef experiance (and requires that you set-up the tank knowing that this is what you want to keep). Believe it or not I have seen it done a long while back by a LFS, and the jellies were kept in a 10 gallon hex for well over a year -then the place closed down.