Top 6 Best Inverts for your Marine Reef Tank
- Sep 25, 2021
- Anshika Mishra
- 326 0 0
In the addictive world of marine reef keeping, you can keep a wide variety of corals as well as entertaining characterful fishes like the Golden Puffer Fish. But away from fishes and corals, the ultra-humble cleanup crew is usually tasked with keeping your rocks and corals clean of algae.
But in a hobby with such variety, the inverts you keep don't have to be purely functional. Therefore, in this article, we are sharing with you the top 6 most characterful inverts for saltwater aquariums.
1. Pom-Pom Craps
These miniature dancing crabs are a great addition to any tank without big enough fish to eat them. Their pom-poms are tiny anemones tied to their body which they use to fight off potential predators and return for their stinging defense duties. their crabs keep the anemones well-fed and healthy.
These creatures are reef safe and fairly easy to keep as they will scuttle around your rock work looking for scraps of food. And if they lose one of their Anemonies, they can even propagate the other to restore their full defenses.
2. Conches
The oddball Conch is some of the most popular cleanup crew members. They bury themselves into your sand, so they are handy for keeping your sand clean, and like pretty much all the cleanup crew, they love diatoms, so they are a great option to help you get through that initial dusty stages.
But it is not just their utilitarian value that makes them so loveable. They have beady little eyes on sticks that immediately give them a comical look before you even get to their elephant-like trunk. Running the length of their solid, well-built shells is a self-writing mechanism that they deploy if they fall over or are attacked.
They are a great option for pretty much all tanks, with the exception of those with large hermit crabs like the Halloween hermit, which will kill a Conch for its shell.
3. Porcelain Anemone Crabs
Despite their rather aggressive-looking claws, these guys are peaceful and reef safe, and they have nets for hands so they can filter their food from the water columns. They have rather striking patterns and often set up home in Aemonies or long tentacled corals like Euphylia.
They can also be kept in pairs which add to their charm. If that's not enough, their character comes from their feeding style, making them look like they are either praying to the reef gods for food or just dancing to places your hands by bush.
4. Harlequin Shrimp
These are often thought of as shrimps best left in the wild. However, they only eat starfish and aren't capable of eating anything else, so they are unsuitable for long-term captivity. Also, even if you have a plague of Astoria starfish, they will chew through them in no time. They will starve to death if you cannot catch them.
But, they are on this list because they look awesome with their armor-plated limbs and their praying mantis-like eyes. They live in pairs and shuffle around your tank all day, looking for aquinderms to eat. But, do know that there is nothing more heartbreaking than watching such beautiful creatures sitting still in the corner of your tank trying to conserve energy when their food source runs out.
So, if you really must buy, please only do so from another hobbyist, and maybe exporters will stop bring them into the trade.
5. Pistol Shrimp
This is an absolute must for any reef tank. They form a symbiotic relationship with certain Gobies whereby the Gobies look out for danger while the Pistol shrimp dig a cave for both of them.
The Pistol shrimp will spend the entire day digging, tidying, and reinforcing his cave only to block it up for safety at night before starting the whole process again. Sometimes, you will also see them clicking away at night hunting for prey. They are as easy to keep as anything on this list and are one of the fascinating animals in their entire hobby.
So, if you have a sand bed in your tank, you need to get a Pistol shrimp.
6. Venus Anemone Shrimp
They live in Heliofungia corals in the wild, and aside from their cool-looking transparent glass-like bodies with blue-tipped claws, they also have a party trick. When they feel threatened or sense danger, they manically bash their front claws together to demonstrate that they are not messed with.
It is easy to take care of, eats all the food that will pass through it, and rarely leaves its host coral. The host coral is also an easy to keep alternative to something like a Bubble-tip Anemonies, and when paired with the clapping shrimp, they make for an eye-catching centerpiece coral worthy of any tank.
So, that was the list of the top 6 best inverts for your reef tank by reef dork. Lets us know which are your favorite inverts in the comments.
Happy Reef Keeping!
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