There have been a few times that I’ve been asked how to care for jellyfish. And, long story short, it’s complicated! In this short article, I describe the complications of keeping these fascinating creatures in captivity. Some creatures should just stay in the wild, and the jellyfish usually is one of them. Jellyfish tanks Meticulously …
Invertebrates
Invertebrates are animals that lack (as you might guess) vertebrae–backbones. This is not a very meaningful distinction from a zoologist’s perspective, as it pretty much includes all animals except for one phyllum, Chordata, if not a single subphyllum, Vertebrata. Still, it is a somewhat useful distinction for aquarists, who tend to best understand the needs of fish (i.e. fellow vertebrates). Fish are very widely available and generally are relatively easy to maintain in captivity. They are active and reasonably (sometimes surprisingly) intelligent. We can even (at least to some extent) train them. Invertebrates, on the other hand, might seem a comparatively alien. Often, they don’t eat in the same manner that we do. They may require very special foods or lighting. They might be extremely fussy about certain water parameters (iodine, calcium, etc.). For sure, they might be a little intimidating for beginner aquarists. Worst of all, because they are such a diverse group (everything from sponges to octopuses to mantis shrimp!), they oftentimes require a lot of research and planning to keep successfully in captivity. All that being said, it is the sheer variety of marine inverts as a group that makes them so fun and rewarding to keep in aquaria. For sure, nothing can be more amusing for an aquarist to show their well-stocked reef tank to a non-aquarist friend/family member and get questions like, “Is that real?” or, ”Is that alive?” In this section, you will learn about the natural history of diverse invertebrate marine life and how to successfully keep each type in captivity.
5 Overlooked Algae-Eaters
When it comes to your clean-up crew in your saltwater aquarium, you usually will think of snails, crabs and starfish. However, there are some other cool inverts and fish you can add that can help tremendously with your aquarium algae clean-up. There are so many saltwater fish that eat algae and this is just my …
How to Get Rid of Aiptasia
When you’re first starting out your aquarium, you usually will spend all day checking on everything in your tank ensuring everything is still intact. Then, one day you look and you see this translucent looking pink flower… I receive one of two reactions from customers when they first come across Aiptasia anemones. One is panic. …
3 Conchs for the Saltwater Aquarium
Conchs are definitely one of the more interesting mollusks that you can add to a saltwater tank. Depending on the type of conch you purchase, they will spend most of their time buried in your sand bed or moving across the top of it. They are ecologically beneficial as they will sift through your sand …
Three Great Hacks for AlgaeBarn Simple Brine
For about a century, brine shrimp (Artemia spp.) have been among the most important of all aquarium foods. Not only are they extremely nutritious, and fish love them, but they are also incredibly convenient to use. This is because it is relatively simple to store and hatch their cysts. Cysts are unlike eggs in that …
Keeping Hippopus Clams
Particularly since the advent of clam farming, tridacnid clams (Family Tridacninae) have been steadily gaining both in popularity and presence within the aquarium hobby. They were once only available as wild-caught, were exceptionally delicate and were thus appropriate only for the most experienced of aquarists; nowadays, farm-raised specimens are in regular production, have proven markedly …
Six Unusual Sea Anemones
What’s not to like about sea anemones? They’re basically big, squishy, solitary polyps with no skeleton. Very often, they are graced with beautiful bright colors. Their long polyps passively drift in the currents, so pretty and graceful that you might forget the powerful sting they can deliver. Even in a tank loaded with flashy corals, …
The Cerith Snail: A “Must-Have” Cleaner
Most aquarists are already aware that snails eat algae. To be most correct, the majority of snail species are algivores. To be sure, some have extremely specialized diets that do not include algae; other snails are technically omnivores, eating all sorts of things including algae. Then, for marine aquarists in particular, there is the issue …
Sea Urchins in the Reef Aquarium
My first sight of a real, live sea urchin was in an aquarium (a friend’s) rather than in the sea. This was in my youth (i.e. quite a long time ago) in the upper Midwest–a time and place when/where marine aquarium livestock was quite difficult to get your hands on. Back then, and especially there, …
Keeping Tube Worms
Undoubtedly, reef aquaria wouldn’t be much without corals. But sometimes it’s those odd noncoral invertebrates that really grab attention and make a display unique. This is certainly so in the case of marine tube worms. To be clear, we’re not talking about the squirmy little wormlike critters here (nematodes, planarians, etc.). We mean the true …
Keeping Mushroom Anemones
No one starts a saltwater aquarium because they hate challenges. Indeed, it is the difficulty (or at least perceived difficulty) of maintaining these systems that is so alluring to many first-time marine aquarists. That being said, it’s always good to take the stroll towards full-blown reefkeeping in baby steps. Veteran hobbyists have seen it so …
Keeping Tube Anemones
Because most marine aquarists these days are reef aquarists–implying that they prefer tanks that feature a mainly rocky reef aquascape–not much attention is given to those animals that live in soft substrates (sand, mud, etc.). This especially is the case most lately with the renewed popularity of bare-bottom scapes. Unfortunately, while reefy aquaria are awesome …
3 Tips for Keeping Maxima Clams
For a couple of decades now, tridacnid or “giant” clams (genera Tridacna and Hippopus) have been regarded as the cherries on top of any well-constructed and well-maintained reef aquarium. Though there have been a couple of newcomers along the way, most members of the relatively small family Tridacnidae have been available in the trade all …
Eliminating Algae with Siphonaria Limpets
In case you haven’t noticed, marine aquarium hobbyists have really upped their standards lately with respect to algal fouling. These much cleaner, healthier, natural-looking tanks surely are the fruit of numerous advancements in water filtration/treatment techniques. But we’ve slipped a few other cards under our sleeves, too; we’ve added an important new component to the …
How to Acclimate Your Captive Bred Invertebrates
Aquarists like to broadly divide classes of aquarium livestock into two big groups, the fishes and the invertebrates. The second group is a huge catch-all, as it includes all non-fish livestock ranging from sponges to crabs. Though invertebrates are overall more sensitive than fish to sudden environmental change, ideal acclimation procedure varies somewhat between the …
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All About Saltwater Tank Crabs
Crabs can be fun, interesting, and helpful additions to a saltwater aquarium. There is a large variety of saltwater tank crabs that are available for hobbyists to buy. From the Emerald to the Horseshoe to hermits, they come in many different shapes and sizes and with that many different uses as well. Crabs are a …
Saltwater Tank Cleaners
Utilizing saltwater creatures is one of the best ways to keep aquariums cleaner. Not only are you adding more interesting organisms, but you are also increasing biodiversity. This allows for an overall more stable reef. There are quite a few of these saltwater tank cleaners that will prove to be a great helping hand to …
Starfish in Saltwater Aquariums
When it comes to marine aquariums, and reef tank setups in particular, the number of fish you can realistically keep in the system is limited. But, the variety and number of invertebrates you can keep are almost endless. Almost. Even tanks as small as five gallons can house a few Sexy Shrimp and micro brittle …
Breeding Peppermint Shrimp
Peppermint shrimp, or Candy Cane shrimp, are one of the most popular ornamental shrimp within the aquarium trade. In fact, they are so popular that they are intensely harvested, more so than most other invertebrate species. With them being so popular, and their ease of breeding, we really should be working together as hobbyists to …
What snails do you really need?
Remember those early saltwater keeping days, when you didn’t know much about your clean up crew other than that they can help keep your tank looking better and reduce algae scraping on your part? Typically, beginners simply go to their fish store, ask for “some cleaners, maybe some hermits and snails please” without really knowing …