Diversifying your reef

[Wonton Soup]

What counts as a diverse population of marine life in the home aquarium?
Does anyone make a consciensous effort to maintain a diversity of invertebrates in their reef?
Is a true diversity even possible given the environment we can produce at home?

My 150 gallon system has been running for nearly 6 years and I've been on a mission to add as many different creatures to my reef as I can while keeping with "reef-safe".
A couple years ago I noticed there weren't any more micro brittle stars, small tube worms, or spaghetti worms in my rocks and sand bed. I think that is mostly attributed to having gone through a wrasse and butterfly phase as they devoured those populations.
I was only replenishing my clean up crew with astrea snails and red/blue leg hermits. Booooooring.

Recently, I have really expanded on mollusks. At least, in my opinion.

:10-15 astrea snails
:5 banded trochus snails
:1 very large zebra turbo snail
:1 fighting conch
:1 chestnut snail
:4 super tonga nassarius snails
:4 or 5 regular nassarius snails
:scores of stomatella snails and chitons from hitchhiking/re-populating over the years

In addition to that list I also have:

:2 different cucumbers; tiger-tail and a random holothuria sp.
:3 different feather duster tube-worms; 1 large Hawaiian and two smaller pink
:5 shrimp; 2 blood red, 2 skunk cleaner, 1 peppermint
:various red/blue leg hermit crabs
:1 commensal acropora crab
:1 large red serpent starfish
:a few other random hitchikers; dwarf coco worm, quarter-size clam, asterina starfish

That still doesn't seem like much to me in terms of oceanic diversity. Obviously, I'm dreaming when I compare my tank to the oceans but I do believe there is more out there that can be of use or at the very least enjoyed.
I don't live near an ocean so I am generally limited to what is found in the industry/hobby.
Is there a reason why the majority of marine invertebrates aren't imported? Perhaps they are and I just don't see them in my LFS.

HOW DO YOU DIVERSIFY THE LIFE IN YOUR REEF?

Thanks!

 

[rick12]

I also include lobster, urchins, many to choose from, and mini nems and flower nems.

 

[Wonton Soup]

Anemones and coral definitely count as marine invertebrates. I suppose I'm thinking of that side of spectrum a little less. Although, I wholeheartedly believe in diversifying your corals.

Urchins are a good one. There are many different types and I do see them occasionally.
I've owned a reef lobster in the past but was too chicken to put it in the display tank fearing it would eat my gobies. I eventually traded it to a friend that wasn't going to keep it in his sump as I was.

 

[Calappidae]

I choose my livestock working around what I currently have. I pick the fish I know I want (or in this case I knew my harlequin shrimp would be in there) and I know what tank mates to avoid. I then add my CUC filled with inverts that won't harm my shrimp and add fish that don't outgrow the 125 and likewise don't hurt anything in including corals.

Most of the diversity is in the coral frags and live rock as that's straight out of the ocean (unless aquacultured which all of it is starting to be.)

 

[Noah 123]

Are you willing to take the challenge of a linkia or fromia star? Both are very pretty, but hard to care for.
Do you have a prawn goby and pistol shrimp pair? That would be a fun and entertaining choice, plus it certainly brings in the reef idea.
How deep is your sand bed? If it's like 6 inches deep you could get a sand sifting starfish, sand dollar, or a ton of mole/sand sifting crabs.
A sea urchin is a good idea (if it's a good species). I'd get a blue tuxedo urchin(s), since they're reef safe, small, and cool looking.
What corals do you have already? If you have none, you could try some easy ones like ricordia mushrooms which need somewhat low light but are very pretty. They also spread across rocks if the tank is healthy.
One final suggestion would be some rare and interesting hermit crabs. Blue knuckle, orange knuckle, and staghorn are all beautiful species and don't grow too huge (each like 2 inches).

 

[Betta132]

Definitely go for a goby/pistol pair.
Tuxedo urchins are great, reef-safe, and not spiny
Personally I'd go for a LFS and pick out the most critter-laced rock visible for just a bunch of new critters. You can find neat little oysters that way, for one.
Find a LFS with rare stuff. Squat lobsters are unusual but neat, for example.

 

[Wonton Soup]

I do have a fair amount of coral. Mostly sps and zoas with some lps thrown in.

Critter covered rocks seems like one of the best ways to incorporate new, random life into the aquarium.
Everything from sponge, to coral, to micro fauna. Even small pieces of rubble from the LFS can seem to have a myriad of different things.

Some times I wish I could get someone living on a coast to send me a 5 gallon bucket of mud/sand/substrate from a beach or lagoon-like area just to see what's in it. It would probably be unwise to plumb such a thing into an established reef but I imagine the diversity in just a square foot area of natural oceanic substrate is amazing.

 

[Noah 123]

I don't think you should go with all of my suggestions, maybe just a few. I'd go with the goby/pistol shrimp pair, tuxedo urchin (try to get blue, not red), blue knuckle hermits (a little expensive for hermits but they're a beautiful species), and like Betta132 said, a squat lobster.

 

[Calappidae]

I think the guy is asking how to build an ecosystem and get tons of life in an atempt to replicate the ocean and how WE do so rather than planning tankmates

To say the least a square cubic foot of anywhere in the ocean has more life than a 100 gallon reef tank overstocked. We can't match the diversity! Even a bucket full of water from the ocean contains more microscopic and planktonic life than your whole systems.

 

[Wonton Soup]

Calappidae, knows what I'm on about!

My tank is just what I have to reference. I'll take suggestions for new additions all day but I really hope to hear from all of you that make an effort to add as much life as possible to your reef aquariums.

When you go to the LFS are you mostly just looking at fish, coral, and the usual clean up crew? Or, do you walk in and ask what's new and weird?

Do you have the option to simply walk outside, down to the beach, dive in, and bring something unique back home with you?

The latter is a dream-worthy situation to me. While vacationing in Hawaii I spent more time flipping rocks over to see what interesting invert was underneath than I did swimming after fish.

 

[Betta132]

Ah, I see...
Well, one LFS near me usually has a couple small tanks full of the weird stuff. Often I check out their LR tank in hopes of spotting something weird I can buy, and I've gotten a few things.
We live a couple hours from the cost, and the tides bring sargassum seaweed full of crawlies and fish up near the beach. That's always fun to go through.

 

[Calappidae]

I live no where near the beach so my limits are whatever is in the LFS.

I always look around the store for something new and weird. Anything new and weird is usually brought home if I have room. I even stare in the live rock holding tanks for a few minutes to see if anything interesting pops out!

Lol, last month they had a velvet nudibranch which are nearly impossible to keep.. despite the fact I did not have flatworms.. and I KNEW everything about them and that I wouldn't be able to keep it.. I struggled not to buy it I'm too used to specialized livestock.

I posted a thread earlier asking for an id on a worm that hitchhiked in my tank.. this tank has 9lbs. of live rock.. more life than my entire lfs.. other lfs.. and online retailers.. IN A 10 GALLON!

This rock is from the gulf of mexico.. I've found whelks, worms, anemones, corals (free brain coral woo!), clams, oysters, scallops, halimeda, aiptasia, these strange red plants which I love started growing outa no where.., limpets who are now cleaning my 125 better than anything else!, crabs, more thorny oysters, an eucinid worm who I don't like in there but it's with a mantis so idc. (and I think she killed him already.), Ugh my post would be removed for being so long listing it all! Oh did I mention that's all just on one of the peices before I bought more? Only 4 lbs. was in this tank when I found all this (the second peice I bought because I saw a mantis in it and that's where I got my N. wennerae who is friendlier than a snail.)

I have a micro brittle that I've had for 5 months.. he was penny size.. I found him a second time 3 months ago and he was about the size of my hand.. I relocated him into my 125. I found him again last week.. NOW HE'S A FOOT IN DIAMETER!! So much for micro brittle! Came outa the same rock too!

 

[Wonton Soup]

Where did you get the rock from?

I've been considering ordering a package of live rock from Tampa Bay Saltwater as that stuff is also harvested from the Gulf and looks to be teeming with different organisms.

Are there any well-known places on the Pacific side of the U.S. that harvest live rock in the same manner? (i.e. placing dry rock on a plot in the ocean and re-collecting years later)

 

[Calappidae]

My lfs started getting the rock in so they always give me reports of weird stuff they can see in it. Hence one of the guys said he got a peice in and there was a little mantis staring right at him so I picked it up!

I believe this is it here: http://www.gulfliverock.com/premium-decorative-rock.html

Between me and the guy at the lfs (who was updating me on the htichhikers).. we both said this live rock is too scary for serious aquariums as there's alot of stuff living in it good and bad and worser than bad.

 

[fishhuman]

Squat lobsters

 

[seymour47]

As many have said, getting true diversity in a home system is basically impossible. There are so many factors that control diversity in a natural reef: flow rate/variance, light and dark, temperature, predator/prey interactions, latitude, distance from the mainland, proximity to other reefs, and sedimentation to name a few. Of course, space limitations are the main factor that hurt diversity. You can only put so many things so close together. This is why we go for species that like to live together.

All that said, striving for diversity is a great idea and I think there are too many people that discount it. I feel like there is way too much focus on the flashy critters like corals and fish. Inverts are a great way to liven up your tank with minimal expense and space.

 

[rssjsb]

When I hear the word diversity in reference to an aquarium, I think of the little things we can't see - all the little bacteria and tiny crustaceans that do the invisible jobs we never think of. Which is why they used to say you should occasionally change your rocks for fresher ones or add new live sand to keep your microfauna diversified and avoid "old tank syndrome."

As everyone upthread has said, the best we can do in terms of the macrofauna is keep things compatible.