New inverts...the good and bad

dcantucson said:
Brittle Starfish are pretty easy. Get a little one cause they grow fast.
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I like the brown banded brittle stars, they seem pretty easy and I know they will scavenge the surface of the sand and rocks for food.

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Just stay away from the green ones, they are aggressive. Stick to brown. And be careful because the green can look like they are on the brown side in certain lighting.

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my red knobby does that surface filtering thing.... i also will feed it some of the krill i give my snowflake when i can reach him... i just peel a small bit of the meat out of the shell, and put it in the armpit thats nearest the top of the tank, then he generally marches right ontop of the meat, and will sit there for 2 days till all the meat is gone.. i do that about once a month.. the rest of the time he's all over the tank...
Buddy the retarded starfish is his name, surprising me daily is his game! hhehehe
 
red knobby's, chocolate chip stars are easy to keep (not reef safe). Brittle starfish are easy to keep they are scavengers, detritus and such.
 
Sorry to hear about the star... But my choc chip does fine.. and he eats alot and when he gets bored and those stupid snails with the black shells fall on there backs he works on them for about two days and eats them... but i am def not a fan of those snails so i am ok with it...:helm2:
 
So today I was doing some cleaning this morning and found 1 of the sexy shrimp laying the overflow of my BC. To my suprise it was still alive. I have no clue how long it's been trapped in there. I put him back in the DT and it seemed to be ok. Swam right to my hairy mushrooms and started eating. :bounce:
 
fwiw I would reccomend a red brittle star. I've had mine for at least 18 mos and it feeds on leftovers that blow by. Very harmless reef inhabitant.
 
winyfrog said:
Yep always look in your overflow, sump/refug when something goes missing. :)
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I know that now....haha. I check last night and there are a few small snails in the overflow, but I'm sure they can crawl out just as easy as they got in. I'll be dismantling the tank in about 2 weeks anyway to upgrade to a larger one.
 
Hiker4twenty said:
Over the weekend I picked up a few new inverts for my tank. I got an Orange Fromia Starfish, 2 Sexy Shrimp, a Peppermint Shrimp and a Queen Conch. I havent' seen the sexy shrimp since I put them in. Hope they're not dead.:death: The peppermint runs around the tank. The starfish seems to be acting strange. It is on the glass hasn't moved in 2 days. Some if it's arms are kind of flowing in the current and seems like it's barely hanging on. Is this normal? The queen conch was dead the next day at the hand of my scarlet reef hermit! :frustrat: About 5 minutes after I put in the conch the scarlet immediately began to attack it. I separated numerous times, but I eventually had to go to bed. I woke up to find the conch shell empty and on it's back.
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not sure what qualifies one to give advice in this sea world field and i'll offer what i've learned so far about mine. dang hermits gotta love them and hate them too tho to some extent there is the old survival of the fittest process going on :death::bounce:. i've done the late nite intervention till ya gotta go to bed too. i'm figuring now not much point as what is goint to happen will happen eventually with or without 'big brother' :frustrat:. how old/young is your tank?

my sea star will hang on the glass for a day or so eating from the water and the glass (i assume) i target feed mine gently with quality frozen food from both sides of the aisle ever few days or so. since rudy (the star) lifts one of his/her legs up to receive the food i'm figuring that is a good sign. the other comments re acclimating and no air exposure are ones i learned to follow too. :bowdown: how many of your star's legs are flowing with the breeze? don't know if it matters and mine has not had more than one or two out at any one time and never looked like it was going to fall off though rudy does look a bit like a drunken sailor the way s/he drapes over things while feeding.

i didn't have much luck with my peppermint shrimp :death:. s/he was relatively little one and i'm assuming is dead at the hands of one of my inhabitants as i haven't seen s/he since i put it in the tank a week ago :grumble:. i think i need a bigger one maybe. :helm2:

goog luck, laura
 

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I feed my chocolate chip by gently picking him up and puttina a piece of shrimp or clam under on the bottom of the tank :Cheers: about once a week.
 
unboundmind said:
not sure what qualifies one to give advice in this sea world field and i'll offer what i've learned so far about mine. dang hermits gotta love them and hate them too tho to some extent there is the old survival of the fittest process going on :death::bounce:. i've done the late nite intervention till ya gotta go to bed too. i'm figuring now not much point as what is goint to happen will happen eventually with or without 'big brother' :frustrat:. how old/young is your tank?

my sea star will hang on the glass for a day or so eating from the water and the glass (i assume) i target feed mine gently with quality frozen food from both sides of the aisle ever few days or so. since rudy (the star) lifts one of his/her legs up to receive the food i'm figuring that is a good sign. the other comments re acclimating and no air exposure are ones i learned to follow too. :bowdown: how many of your star's legs are flowing with the breeze? don't know if it matters and mine has not had more than one or two out at any one time and never looked like it was going to fall off though rudy does look a bit like a drunken sailor the way s/he drapes over things while feeding.

i didn't have much luck with my peppermint shrimp :death:. s/he was relatively little one and i'm assuming is dead at the hands of one of my inhabitants as i haven't seen s/he since i put it in the tank a week ago :grumble:. i think i need a bigger one maybe. :helm2:

goog luck, laura
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Well, the star has since gone to the toilet bowl becasue it started to melt away. My tank is almost 6months old.
 
Hiker4twenty said:
Well, the star has since gone to the toilet bowl becasue it started to melt away. My tank is almost 6months old.
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sorry to hear about star. sometimes i've found you can get livestock that isn't in the best health from the beginning and that never helps. in any case, you did what you could and you've learned and that's about all you can do. your tank is alittle older than mine and alot smaller i think. i have 85 gallons so one advantage is there is less fluctuation in water parameters than with a smaller tank, not that i don't need to monitor and such.
good luck, laura
 
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