You input on inverts, please....

[Gluestick]

I have been planning my tank for a couple months now, and I have gotten a lot of info on fish and equip. but not much info on inverts, which stinks because my goal is to have a 90 gallon RR tank with mainly corals and inverts, and just a couple peaceful reef-safe fish (clowns, a goby/shrimp pair, maybe a mandarin someday! some others...). Today I went to a LFS and saw some beautiful bright purple nudibranch with orange tenticles. I can't find anything on this animal, except that nudibranches die in captivity so don't even keep them. That's it? I would also like to know more about urchins and anemones, feather dusters and clams. How many can you keep? What do you feed them? Do you have use additives? Do you have to do additional H2O testing? These are things that I am assuming, but none of the books I've read say much, and there aren't many online sources... When keeping inverts, do the same rules apply, as far as the length of fish requiring so many gallons? I see a lot of pictures of tanks with corals and inverts covering the live rock, and that is what I would like to have, but not if it is unhealthy for the critters. If anyone could recommend a book or a website, that would be great! Also, I would love to hear your experiences with your inverts, or some pics!!!

[dhoch]

Well I can't answer all your questions, but:

Aneomones and Clams typically require high amounts of light... Anemones especially require good water conditions (clams as well, but typically not demanding). Many will say don't keep an anemone till your tanks is at least 1 year old.

There is an anemone forum here (as well as a triceda forum... clams)... thats a good place to start for these creatures... wealths of information.

Many of the reef safe urchins eat micro algae that grows in peoples tanks (so again waiting on these as well).

Dave

[Gluestick]

Thanks a lot Dave. Can soft corals and stony corals be kept together?

[dhoch]

Yup.... my tank has both...

Dave

[bertoni]

This book might be useful:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1890087661/sr=8-1/qid=1140844654/ref=sr_1_1/103-5114497-9687006?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Also, this book covers corals well, IMO:

[ericsbook]

[gtriamy]

urchins - in my experience, they like to move stuff around, if its short spine it will try to pick up your corals, rocks and shells; if its a long spine then it will just move things by bumping into things. most of the urchins i've seen just scavenge, don't eat algae.

feather dusters are good and all, they eat phyto, and in my tank, i turn off all the flow and spot feed them, but in all reality, they come from "dirty" water conditions where they constantly feed from the water column.

for most sessile (i think thats how you spell it) inverts, u can keep as many as you can pile into the tank. some corals will attack each other so you have to give space to some (ie frogspawn) and some you don't (shrooms). i'm a little insane and so i spot feed my corals once a week, usually mysis and plankton, the rest of the time they pick up whatever they can from the water column. its always tempting to be walking around in the LFS and see a coral or an invert and suddenly want to take it home right there, but i'd advise against this, you never know what kind of needs that coral, urchin, nudi, snail, watever has. take it slowly and don't get discouraged.
The only thing I add is iodine, of which i also test for.

BTW, books are nice and all, and they do have alot of info, but in this hobby, new discoveries happen all the time. sometimes the new, and better info overwrites the old info, and sometimes its not better info. I personally use the internet, the forums, my LFS and a few friends for information, but then again, it would be nice to have something that i can just pick up and find the answer right away. hope i helped more than confused.

[Gluestick]

Thanks! By sessile, you mean corals, right? I didn't know that corals would attack each other!!! Are there other corals besides frogpawn that attack each other? Will they kill each other??

[One Eyed Bunny]

Hammer coral is another example. From my experience anything with tentacles will "attack" other coral, fish and inverts if given the opportunity or right circumstances. This doesn't mean you can't keep fish and coral, it justs they will if they get a great opportunity, but most likely that'll only happen once in a blue moon and neither coral or fish/invert will be mortally wounded.

[bertoni]

Most corals are aggressive to some degree or another. The book I listed has more information. Some fish are sensitive to corals stings. Pipefish are an example, and shouldn't be kept with certain corals.