20141028 Reef Safe

A Cleaner Shimp

One of the most common terms one hears or asks in the marine aquaria is "Is ____ Reef safe?"

Well, to answer that question, first we must define what is "reef safe"?

Here is an article from Wikipedia defining reef safe.

So in short, I think most people would agree reef sate in the home aquarium means the critter you are referring will NOT hurt invertebrates, including coral. Even though in the broad spectrum, there really is very limited true "reef safe" creatures as most fish, even those who are vegetarian, would need to consume crustacean at some point in there life journey. But for the sake of general reference, it means a fish/invertebrate will not attack or cause long term damage to other commonly available aquarium creatures. 

Even those that are considered reef safe, one can still find an occasional specimens that is a black horse who wants to redefine their diet habit.

To illustrate, here is a small sample of fish that are "reef safe"

Yellow Tang- Primarily vegetarian, very rarely harms invertebrates.

Clown fish- Not an herbivore but will not attack invertebrates.

Seahorse- Very gentle creature, will not attach invertebrates, but will eat pods.

A list of "reef safe" invertebrates

Tridacna clams- will not bother anyone, no feeding necessary with sufficient lighting and adequate water quality

Small Polyp Stony coral- same as above

Cleaner shrimp- will not bother anyone, will help pick on parasites on fish

What about "not reef safe" fish?

Any fish in the following family cannot be trusted:

Angel- most will nip on corals or clam

Butterfly- most will nip coral

Trigger- will eat any crustacean, will also harm smaller fish, but not necessarily corals

Puffer- Same as above

Lion- Same as above

Grouper- Same as above

Some not reef safe invertebrates:

Mantis shrimp- will eat ANYTHING alive

Lobster- will harm fish/clam

larger crabs- will harm fish/other invertebrates

Anemone- this is a tricky one, but they may consume smaller, weaker fish or crustacean. 

20140612-Tank moving 2

As many aquarist know, tanking moving/cleaning can be one of the few opportunities to view a creature normally not visible- like this tiger pistol shrimp.
I do see this shrimp about once every other week. Most of the time instead of seeing it, I "hear" it.
Pistol shrimps can produce a very loud sound much like my mantis shrimp from the past. My wife loves it as it reminds her of the mantis shrimp, which she adored.
This pistol shrimp actually bonded with my fire fish goby and was a master engineer. He had dug an entire subway system in the tank.

My cleaner shrimp began bearing eggs a month after I got them in the tank and I have never seen them without eggs since then. It's almost impossible to raise young shrimp since they have a rather long planktonic stage. But it sure is a nice feast for all the other critters in the tank when they release the eggs.

Lastly, this nice and big coral banded shrimp has amazing blue marking that is not commonly seen on others. It's the king of the tank and takes no non-sense.

7 Saltwater Fishes you should NEVER buy Part 1

Saltwater fish to never get #1: Cleaner Wrasse (Labroides dimidiatus)

 Cleaner Wrasse belongs to the "reef safe" side of the wrasse family. They are small (never grow larger than 4"), colorful, and has an interesting personality as they dance from one area of the tank to another if you ever possess them. Without knowing what it takes to keep them healthy (or even alive), they do seem to be one of the more fitting candidates for a reef tanks if you are adding color and point of interest to your tank.

An even more attractive reason to get one for your tank is their ability to get into fishes tight cavity parts to pick away their external parasites (as show below, picking an Emperor Angel's gill)

 In the nature, they are known to set up cleaning stations or play "Doctors without borders" to clean other marine neighbors including the moray eel, who usually swallows any fish that fits through its mouth.

Why shouldn't you keep it? Well, from my experiences working at aquarium retail store, they are extremely finicky in what they eat. In order to keep them alive, you MUST have a tank large enough (or with a fish population large enough) to supply a constant population of "sick" fish requiring parasite treatment from a cleaner wrasse. If you do not possess the above, you might need to does a heavy amount of variety of natural food so that they can pick off what they "like" among the things you feed. The uneaten portion of that meal will eventually contaminate your tank and create extra nitrate to poison the water for your reef inhabitants. Almost 100% of the cleaner wrasse from all the retailers I've worked for died from starvation (I was not in charge of ordering at that time) Therefore ever since I took over the ordering duty, I reframe myself from ordering cleaner wrasses even if a customer special requests them. I would educate them substitutes for cleaner wrasse (cleaner shrimp, neon goby, etc) that are more sustainable to the environment and are hardier to keep in their tank.

If you do see one of these cleaner wrasses in your local aquarium store, please be brace and bold to confront the managing staff to stop ordering them as their capture from the ocean is almost 100% the time a death sentence to them. Unless, that is, you have a tank a few thousand gallons in volume with a few hundred fish for it to pick through.