what can I mix with snowflake and sea star...

[Zoa]

Hi!

I have a 125 FOWLR. tank is not drilled. acquired a 2nd 125 tank for snowflake eel when I wanted to go reef. Eel eats frozen silversides and shrimp, have never seen him or her eat anything live - even the ghost shrimp.


When I was first establishing the tank....I was advised to buy a critter cleaner pack......Received two of those beautiful Ophiarachna incrassata, the infamous Green Brittle Star, who cleaned up my crew and fish. took a long time of looking for a mantis or gorilla grab to finally find out who the real culprit was. Put the 2 of these brittles with the eel and one ate the other.

So I have had the snowflake and my demon sea star in the same tank well over a year.

As both creatures spend a lot of time under the rocks, and is not a reef, it sometiumes gets a bit dull. Is there any kinds of fish I could put in this tank that would not fall into demon's clutches and be happy?

thanks for your input.

 

[marrone]

Snow Flakes eel, specially smaller ones, is a non-aggressive eel so you really could put almost anything in the tank with it. The only thing that may attack the Brittle star would be a trigger, as they like to take bits out of things from time to time, but even that would probably be safe.

So with such a large tank you could actually get a couple of fish or one nice fish, like an angel or trigger, that will swim around a lot.

 

[Zoa]

thanks...I have never done angels.....can you give me some ideas of what might be good? do you think the green star willl leave it alone?

as far as triggers go--the picasso is less aggressive than most correct?

can the trigger and angel be mixed....

altho I was unhappy with demo's clean-up methods, I have had him for a while and would not want it to become a chew toy. At the same time.....I do not want to feed the star another fish..

thanks

 

[marrone]

Most brittle/serpent stars are scavengers and will not eat live fish unless the fish is dieing. So I wouldn't worry about placing any fish in the tank with it.


As for Angel fish you could look at would be a small Emperor or Koran though they will out grow the tank in some time. A Majestic or a Blue face angel don't get hugh and would be fine in that tank. Another Angel that would really do well with an eel and trigger is a Passer angel. It' doesn't get large and is actually some what aggressive.

As for Trigger fish a Picasso/Humu-Humu would work very well as they're not as aggressive as other Triggers and probably would be ok with the other Angels, specially the Passer.

 

[Zoa]

you are right about most brittles. I have no idea why I was sent the only type of brittle sea starts that are not reef safe, the Ophiarachna incrassata. By the time I knew what it was--it was so long after the fact....

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-06/ac/feature/index.php

do a find/search on the page for the name of the sea star.....


I will check out the fish you mentioned. I had thought about triggers but not angels. I appreciate your input.

thank you!

 

[Zoa]

bump