What are some good inverts?

[Uyro1]

I am looking to put some cool inverts in my 10 gal nano. Does anyone have any cool ideas about what i can do? All i have is 10 cerith snails that are doing great. Oh and I have 2 baby clams that I have found in my live rock and are eating great :)

[MalHavoc]

You'll need to give us some more information about your tank. Lighting? Flow? How long has it been set up? What are your water parameters? do you have any fish (some fish eat inverts)?

[orcafood]

Harlequin shrimp are always cool, but they require a diet of starfish, and from what I heard, starfish once a month is sufficient.
Fire shrimp and coral shrimp are cool too.

[Uyro1]

I have 2 power compacts, lots of flow, it has been set up about 3 months, and i have 1 sixline wrasse. And on the water parameters, um, i have no idea. I have not checked them since the first week. I figure its fine since my plants and coral are growing great. I know its TABOO for you guys but everything is going so easy. Dont kill me! (cry)

[steven_dean17]

LOL, you'll figure the water out soon enough.(tisk, tisk, tisk) IMO more snails until you start testing that water, I would hate to see you waste your money of soon to be dead stuff.

[mg426]

I think you also should take a look at your water, A 10 gallon tank aint the most stable thing in the world.

[ACBlinky]

In a 10g you're a bit limited - things like urchins, arrow crabs, banded coral shrimp and large hermits will outgrow the available space - but there are quite a few small inverts that will be enjoyable and may help clean the tank as well.

Hermit crabs - scarlets and blue legs stay small, you could get a few if you enjoy watching crabs (any cleaning they do is pretty much incidental). If you get a Hawaiian zebra, only get one - they get quite a bit larger. Avoid halloween, electric orange, electric blue and strawberry hermits, which get too large for a nano (golf ball sized or even larger).

Snails - you could get a few more snails if you like; trochus snails are gorgeous, and do a great job of cleaning film algaes. One would do nicely in a 10g - I have one in my 30g, she keeps the tank pretty clean all on her own (there are no other snails in the tank). Avoid the larger turbos, unless you want a large pet and are willing to supplement the snail's diet with nori - they're eating machines, and they can knock frags or unsecured rockwork over like little bulldozers.

tiger or Randall's pistol shrimp - these are wonderful to watch when paired with a shrimp goby, but a 10g may not be large enough - my pistol has been with me for 2.5 years now, and is about 3" long. He's on his third goby (lost the others to surfing incidents), and the goby has already gone from 1.5" to about 2.5" long in less than 6 months. They have tunnels all over the right hand side of my 90g; someone else may be able to tell you if 10g is enough space for a pair long-term, I'm not sure.

Porcelain crabs - completely and utterly reef safe, these guys are filter feeders that are tons of fun to watch. They're beautiful - they can be white with red spots, bright purple, striped, and I'm sure there are loads of colours/patterns I haven't seen as well - and if there's nothing in the tank to frighten them they'll sit on top of the rockwork, sifting the water with their feathery little catcher's mitts.

Emerald crabs - fun to watch, but not always a safe bet - some will take to sampling corals, while others are 'model citizens'. People seem to have more luck with females, maybe because they stay smaller they have smaller appetites? Crabs are smarter than we tend to give them credit for, and you can train them to take food from a stick or pipette, so you can see them any time you like. They also eat algae, which helps keep the tank tidy.

Oh, and on the subject of tap water... everyone's tap water is different, and some of us get away with it, while others have disastrous algae outbreaks and horrible levels. My tanks are just fine with our local water, all the levels are great (lots of zeros). Of course we all should use RO/DI, but trust a good test kit and TDS meter to tell you whether or not it's an outright necessity.