Inhabitants advice!

[psanimals]

Hey, i’ve been looking around and these are the species i would love to have in my inverts only tank, i would love to know your opinions on which ones can be housed together? Any personal experience and advice would be incredible! For reference it’s a 3ft tank and will not have any corals.

yellow footed hermit crabs
decorator crab
cowrie
short spine urchin
tuxedo urchin
sand shifting starfish
mottled starfish
strombus snail
tiger tail cucumber
pink spiny cucumber
tropical abalone
trochus snail
nassarius snail
peppermint shrimp
brittle star


Thank you!

 

[Mr. Mojo Rising]

I would suggest to remove the stars except for the brittle star, most sand sifting starfish don't survive long in our tanks, they die of hunger slowly. Brittle stars will eat whatever you feed the tank.

Why not a large show size snail? So many more snails you can add to the that list...... Ninja star snails? Bumble bee snails? Have you seen the dragon throne turbo snail? The pink turban snail? The spiny pacific turban snail?

Cowrie snails are a must.

No conches?

IMO peppermint shrimp is rather unattractive, have a look at coral banded shrimp or blood shrimp, or sexy shrimp, bumble bee shrimp.....

I would remove the decorator crab from the list, I believe it might eat the other inverts. Instead how about some porcelain crabs, pom pom crabs, pitho crabs, strawberry crab, emerald crabs. Also so many different kinds of hermits, why only one kind?

No nudibranches? No featherdusters?

I've had a couple of small invert tanks over the years, they are a lot of fun. Since you're doing a 3' long tank, I think you can make your list more exciting.

 

[littlefoxx]

Hey, i’ve been looking around and these are the species i would love to have in my inverts only tank, i would love to know your opinions on which ones can be housed together? Any personal experience and advice would be incredible! For reference it’s a 3ft tank and will not have any corals.

yellow footed hermit crabs
decorator crab
cowrie
short spine urchin
tuxedo urchin
sand shifting starfish
mottled starfish
strombus snail
tiger tail cucumber
pink spiny cucumber
tropical abalone
trochus snail
nassarius snail
peppermint shrimp
brittle star


Thank you!

AVOID CUCUMBERS. One got in my sump somehow and crawled into the return pump. Nuked my tank.

 

[psanimals]

I would suggest to remove the stars except for the brittle star, most sand sifting starfish don't survive long in our tanks, they die of hunger slowly. Brittle stars will eat whatever you feed the tank.

Why not a large show size snail? So many more snails you can add to the that list...... Ninja star snails? Bumble bee snails? Have you seen the dragon throne turbo snail? The pink turban snail? The spiny pacific turban snail?

Cowrie snails are a must.

No conches?

IMO peppermint shrimp is rather unattractive, have a look at coral banded shrimp or blood shrimp, or sexy shrimp, bumble bee shrimp.....

I would remove the decorator crab from the list, I believe it might eat the other inverts. Instead how about some porcelain crabs, pom pom crabs, pitho crabs, strawberry crab, emerald crabs. Also so many different kinds of hermits, why only one kind?

No nudibranches? No featherdusters?

I've had a couple of small invert tanks over the years, they are a lot of fun. Since you're doing a 3' long tank, I think you can make your list more exciting.

Thanks for all that info! I think a lot are unfortunately not available in australia though, so my options are a lot more limited!

 

[psanimals]

AVOID CUCUMBERS. One got in my sump somehow and crawled into the return pump. Nuked my tank.

dang really! that’s disappointing, they are so cool. i heard they could nuke tanks but thought it was a rare thing.

 

[littlefoxx]

dang really! that’s disappointing, they are so cool. i heard they could nuke tanks but thought it was a rare thing.

Me too until it happened to me!