looking for a cool/unique reef-safe addition

[BSej]

Hi all,
I am looking for a new addition to my tank. Something pretty/colorful/unique that isn't going to kill or be killed haha. I don't have any shrimp due to fear of them being eaten. Open to all suggestions. Was looking into starfish?

150 gal reef (lps/soft)
Here is my fish list:

4 x Clown fish	1 x Blue damsal	1 x Foxface
1 x Sailfin tang	1 x Chocolate tang	1 x Red dragonnette goby
1 x Bluejaw trigger	1 x Formosa wrasse
2 x Anthias	1 x striped fang Blenny
2 x Fire fish	1 x pixie hawk
1 x Scopas tang	1 x neon dottyback

 

[randomfishdude]

For fish you could go with a school of anthias.

Nit very shure for a starfish. I have a leneka but they often don't live long. The other 2 stars I've kept (sand sifting and serpent/brittle) don't stay out.

 

[BSej]

For fish you could go with a school of anthias.

Nit very shure for a starfish. I have a leneka but they often don't live long. The other 2 stars I've kept (sand sifting and serpent/brittle) don't stay out.

Not sure if I want to go that route if they don't tend to live long, but very cool creature nonetheless.

 

[randomfishdude]

Not sure if I want to go that route if they don't tend to live long, but very cool creature nonetheless.

I think you have to figure out what they want to eat. You have to feed em. I've been trying and I think I've succeeded in feeding it.

 

[BSej]

Would any shrimp be possible? What about an urchin?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Yeah, most true, reef-safe starfish (Asteroidea) tend to die off after ~8-13 months in our tanks, presumably due to lacking diets.

Since the reef-safe species are thought (with good reason) to eat biofilm in the wild, and since we can't purposefully recreate those biofilms in our tanks, they basically just slowly starve in our tanks.

Brittle and serpent stars (Ophiuroidea), however, tend to do well in our tanks.

With a formosa, trigger, and hawkfish in the mix, I'd probably look more toward adding something like a sea cucumber myself.

 

[BSej]

Yeah, most true, reef-safe starfish (Asteroidea) tend to die off after ~8-13 months in our tanks, presumably due to lacking diets.

Since the reef-safe species are thought (with good reason) to eat biofilm in the wild, and since we can't purposefully recreate those biofilms in our tanks, they basically just slowly starve in our tanks.

Brittle and serpent stars (Ophiuroidea), however, tend to do well in our tanks.

With a formosa, trigger, and hawkfish in the mix, I'd probably look more toward adding something like a sea cucumber myself.

because they won't attack it?

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

because they won't attack it?

Yeah, few of the things we put in our tanks bother sea cucumbers.

Edit: To add, it might be worthwhile asking people like i can't think and Slocke about potential inverts for the tank, as you've got some pretty aggressive-toward-inverts fish in there that they likely have some good info on.

 

[BSej]

Yeah, few of the things we put in our tanks bother sea cucumbers.

Edit: To add, it might be worthwhile asking people like i can't think and Slocke about potential inverts for the tank, as you've got some pretty aggressive-toward-inverts fish in there that they likely have some good info on.

@Slocke

 

[Slocke]

Large wrasse like the Formosa and the trigger could be a threat to echidnoderms, aka starfish and urchins. Rock urchins and long spine are a tougher option but tuxedos seem to be an easy prey for larger wrasse. As for starfish like brittle/serpent stars you definitely want a larger one but they are not necessarily safe either. Unfortunately a Coris Formosa is a formidable hunter. (Also not found anywhere near the place formerly known as Formosa so don’t even know how they got their name.)

 

[BSej]

It seems I should've passed on him and got several cool inverts instead of one fish.

 

[Cthulukelele]

also just a heads up a full grown formosa wrasse can grow to 2 feet long. They get GIANT, can toss rocks and coral over scavenging for food, and they will make a 150 look SMALLLLLL. At full size I wouldn't trust them with a single invert aside from maybe a longspine urchin.

 

[BSej]

also just a heads up a full grown formosa wrasse can grow to 2 feet long. They get GIANT, can toss rocks and coral over scavenging for food, and they will make a 150 look SMALLLLLL. At full size I wouldn't trust them with a single invert aside from maybe a longspine urchin.

I heard they don't grow very big in tanks, only in the wild.

 

[Cthulukelele]

I heard they don't grow very big in tanks, only in the wild.

That's true 8ish usually, but I'd be prepared for more, and even at that size they flip rocks and inverts for food

 

[BSej]

I got a pincushion urchin, he's doing fine. Will get a couple more and look for some larger hermits. The wrasse seems to only go for the small guys, at least for now.

 

[BSej]

Update: I've purchased several snails, crabs, urchins, a sea cucumber and a cleaner shrimp, with success.

I've been putting my snails in on the rock instead of on the sand bed which helps a lot as far as attacks from the Formosa and the snails' ability to stay grounded.

I fed and left a strip of seaweed in on one side of the tank, and put the shrimp in on the other side. The Formosa has not paid any attention to him. Will look to get more now.

The formosa seems to like to attack things that he notices are being newly added. If I distract him while I'm adding inverts, he seems much less interested later on. He'll still occasionally go for some snails or crabs but nowhere near as much as when I would add them without distracting him.

 

[krollins]

A engineer goby's eel-like body is always unique. Another you could try a jawfish

 

[BSej]

A engineer goby's eel-like body is always unique. Another you could try a jawfish

engineer goby is super cool. I'm worried about my rock structure though because it's on top of the sand, not the glass floor.