Larger reef safe inverts

[Indytraveler83]

Looking for ideas on larger reef safe inverts, here's the somewhat narrow criteria (90 gallon mostly lps reef):

1) Absolutely coral and fish safe for it's entire lifetime. Nothing that "might" chew a zoa or snag a fish.

2) No more urchins: I have 2 and I'm not sure there's enough algae/food available for more.

3) Big enough to be seen, and not likely to hide all the time.

4) And please nothing that's going to nuke a tank if it dies, or nothing that's ill-suited for tank life and likely to die anyways.

I have a very large skunk cleaner shrimp that's the "star" of the tank inverts, so hoping for more friends for him we can see across the room.

Edit: My local shops rarely have good inverts beyond basic CuC or $50 cleaner shrimp, so I'll likely need to buy online.

 

[Gernader]

Check out the large sand conch snails and blood red fire shrimp!

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Liveaquaria often has cool WYSIWYG inverts all the time, my favorites are flame shrimp and squat lobsters. And while reef safe, you could try a reef lobster of some sort, but with some of them they could turn on other inverts for food.
There is an invert that I have been researching recently, they are called slipper lobsters. Most often sold for the food market, some of the smaller species could make very cool reef inhabitants, since they lack true claws to really do any damage.

Good luck and God bless you!

 

[Indytraveler83]

Check out the large sand conch snails and blood red fire shrimp!

I like the fire shrimp for sure, I'll just hesitant to pay the $50+ that a lot of folks want for them. I'll definitely check out the conches.

 

[Indytraveler83]

Liveaquaria often has cool WYSIWYG inverts all the time, my favorites are flame shrimp and squat lobsters. And while reef safe, you could try a reef lobster of some sort, but with some of them they could turn on other inverts for food.
There is an invert that I have been researching recently, they are called slipper lobsters. Most often sold for the food market, some of the smaller species could make very cool reef inhabitants, since they lack true claws to really do any damage.

Good luck and God bless you!

I'll have to look at that. I'm trying to avoid anything that's going to destroy other animals in the tank. I learned the hard way with a Sally Lightfoot crab that went on a snail/hermit murdering spree when it got bigger. Couldn't catch the thing till I upgraded tanks.

 

[Sailfin11]

Take a look at the reef lobsters -- they stay around 3-5 inches and are generally reef safe (may eat a few snails). The Daums, Debelius, or Hawaiian Red would be your best candidates.

 

[Jeremy K.A.]

Take a look at the reef lobsters -- they stay around 3-5 inches and are generally reef safe (may eat a few snails). The Daums, Debelius, or Hawaiian Red would be your best candidates.

I'd recommend against it. Mine ate fish as well lol

 

[ichthyogeek]

Hmmm....that last #4 criterion...I guess it depends on what your version of "ill-suited for tanks and likely to die anyways" is. I'd be more than happy to constantly pump in phytoplankton/copepods for flame scallops and xmas tree worms, but it does depend on the person....

Non-xmas tree feather duster worms sound interesting. So do tridacnid clams of any sort.

Harlequin shrimp are pretty as long as you're willing to keep buying/raising starfish for them to eat.

You could always buy another skunk cleaner shrimp to get yours a buddy. Added bonus is as long as you have two, you'll end up getting shrimp larvae, which could help feed the tank...

 

[BlennyTime]

Take a look at the reef lobsters -- they stay around 3-5 inches and are generally reef safe (may eat a few snails). The Daums, Debelius, or Hawaiian Red would be your best candidates.

We had a debelius lobster in our old tank who hid all the time, and was aggressive to our smaller fish. The only way we could get him out was when we upgraded our tank and took everything out.

 

[Jeremy K.A.]

We had a debelius lobster in our old tank who hid all the time, and was aggressive to our smaller fish. The only way we could get him out was when we upgraded our tank and took everything out.

Yup, exactly how mine is lol thats why he has his own tank now