Invert help

[athick2]

I have a package of some inverts coming tomorrow and I need some questions answered. The package contains snails, crabs,a shrimp, a clam, a starfish and a green star polyp. My 55 g tank has about 80 lbs of live rock and was just started up about 2 months ago and has been sitting empty for a while. The tank now has a moderate amount of algae growth.

I have two questions that I have been searching this site for:

1. What should be put in a QT and what is ok to go straight in? (I have read that the snails/crabs/shrimp can go either way and the GSP can go straight in)....comments

2. What should I be feeding these guys or is there enough food in the tank for them to scavenge on? If I decide to quarantine most of them I will need to feed them something for sure. I live about an hour away from a fish store, so is there anything I can get a grocery store or Walmart?


Tank: 55 gallon, 80lb LR, 12 gallon sump (650 gph circulation), 2x 150w MH, 4x24w CF

 

[olemiss reb]

What type of clam, star? Crabs/snails should be fine on algae. Nass snails will need some type of meaty food though. Different stars have different needs. Tanking a guess that it is a brittle or serpent, if so you will need to supplement with small meaty foods. Clam- littleneck or tridacna? never kept littlenecks, tridacna should be fine with your halides- inspect for pyramid snails/eggs before putting it in the dt! I never qt inverts but that is your call. I would isolate the gsp to a spot in the sand to keep it from taking over your rockwork.

 

[athick2]

Here is a list:

Fancy Nassarius Snail x2, Brittle Starfish, Turbo/Astrea Snail - Group of 10, Cleaner Clam, Blue Leg Hermit Crab - Group of 10, Peppermint Shrimp x2, Emerald Crab x2, Dwarf White Leg Hermit Crabs - Group of 10

Do you have examples of meaty foods that I do not need to get from fish store?

Thanks for the input

 

[olemiss reb]

If you are not going to a LFS, uncooked frozen shrimp are fine but you will have to cut them up and spot feed the star small pieces. Pepps and nass will eat small pieces as well.