UK Coral Frags - www.prestigereef.co.uk Aquarium Consultancy Service - prestigereef.co.uk/collections/merchandise/products/1-hour-consultancy

Worst impulse purchase was a small Synapta maculata (sold as "Jersey sleeves"), which I was told would make a great scavenger. A little of bit of research made me realise that there was no way I could cater for a sea-cucumber that would reach the size of a boa constrictor. Fortunately I was able to return it.

Sea cucumbers deserve a (dis)honorable mention. Little bit of an anecdote here but; When a small time pet shop in my town started to sell salt water stuff & had up a display tank, I talked with one of the owners about it. Turns out one of the 3 owners had gone on a whim and wanted a salt water tank, but figured he might as well use it as a business opportunity so he put it in the store and the other 2 owners were on board despite not knowing much about it, since only one other shop in a 50km radius had salt water stuff. Had a sea cucumber in it because he insisted on it apparently, knowing the risks according to one of the other 2 owners I spoke to. Next time I swung by out of curiosity a few weeks later, the display tank was gone. Asked about it and turned out the sea cucumber got overly ambitious in it's exploratory manners and got itself stuck against the output flow, happened overnight & it kamikazed the entire tank. Sure they're silly little things and fun to look at sometimes but I don't think a living moving log that's filled with toxins & irritants is worth those small benefits.

Only one I disagree with is urchins. I think the Tuxedos, Variegated (Pincushion), and Rock urchins are all great and reef safe. I love my captive bred urchin, and I collected the rock urchins from Hawaii. I hardly ever see them, but they come out at night and are super hardy. If frags are stable then they usually never knock them over. I guess the one flaw is picking up frags (mine hasn’t, but one day he might)

Pistol Shrimp. I can't keep ANY coral on my sandbed without it smothering them with sand; Snipping at them or dragging frags into its cave. Had 4 giant coco worms on one side of the tank for a year until one day my pistol shrimp made its way over and ripped them all to shreds over a span of a few days.

I had a pencil urchin which literally took over my 55 gallon tank. That little urchin did everything from murder a bunch of flame scallops by moving a massive rock on his own (breaking all their backs), to drilling a hole into the shell of my baby horseshoe crab and eating it. It was adorable but was responsible for so much death........ Flame scallops are beautiful creatures - provided you don't have an urchin to murder them. Sea apples are beautiful creatures too - not sure they belong in a tank however.

Thank you for your honesty ! I have had a sand sifting arcaster starfish for 6 months and its legs are now shortening. I thought i was doing something wrong or that it was starving. I tried to give it some pellets / frozen food/ nori but it is moving away. You only gave me the answer : it is HARD to keep it on the long run no matter what…

I am with you on Hermit crabs. The Arrow head crab for me was an eating machine and not in a reef friendly sort of way either.

had rbta's forever with clowns , in fact the only nems I've ever had consistency with; great characters, I do respect them far more than corals, I think just because they scuttle about :)

My Peppermint Shimp which was a preventative for Aiptasia started eating LPS so had to go! I also probably won't replace my urchins if they die, they like rearranging things too much! 🤣 They did help through the ugly stages when the tank was maturing though!

Though I disagree with a few topics you've discussed in several videos of yours, I still find your videos entertaining and knowledgeable. Some seem a bit more opinionated instead of factual, however it all still comes together in a direct and educational teaching. Stay well my friend from across the pond. Much love from Southern USA. ❤

My reef tank was doing really well, and I wanted a challenge. So I went to my LFS and bought a beautiful fire scallop, I put it in my tank, and it moved to the top of a rock and opened up, looking absolutely beautiful! I wake up the next day, it was completely open and was torn apart by the clean up crew, it died overnight. 😭

He’s pretty accurate, def double edge sword with all of these.. respectfully I say sea urchins are one the best inverts you can have if your system can handle it

Thanks mate! You are a fantastic presenter. Honesty is the great motivator. Paly's are wonderful, but I won't ever get them again. A simple Lighting change stressed the colony I had. It wiped out my tank with it's toxin. I have a ricordea left though. The fish survived as well.

completely agree with your assessment. I dont keep shrimps either. They just steal food from my corals if they are not feed 1st.

i love hermit crabs when i got into saltwater that was my 1st tank i had 4 or 5 diff kinds of crabs in my tank and turbo snails both did and do great together. snails have lived 2 to 4 years and never had any of my crabs eat them or even pick on them. most times just climb all over them and go for a ride. it all about the feeding. keep the crabs full and wont mess with other stuff in tank

Hermits aint an issue if you get Dwarf Blue Legs or Scarlet Reef Hermits. Use Banded Trochus snails instead of Turbos, Astrea ect... as when these fall Banded Trochus can re-right themselves instead of being easy pickings for a hungry hermit. Another trick with Hermits is to add some small snail shells to your tank for them to up grade to as they get bigger. Youll have a much better success rate and unlike other snails I have gotten Banded Trochus to lay eggs and reproduce regularly in my tanks the last 22 years. A lot of what you said about RBTA/BTA's is truer than not. I add them first to my tank before corals first of all. I also sculpt my rock work so that I have a couple of high points in my tank and various light intensity levels and flow. I then allow my RBTA to find its happy spot and they usually stay there pretty consistently about 95% of the time in a suitably aged tank. RBTA/BTA's will host 14 different species of Clownfish even if they dont normally in the wild. If you must get a Anemone choose the right anemone for your clownfish, and know this is for the more advanced hobbyist and not something for the beginner or someone new to the Hobby. If you clown doesnt want to host and you got the right anemone...tape a photo of a clown fish hosting in an anemone close to your anemone on the tank glass and the captive bred Clowns will usually figure it out pretty quick. I am so with you on the Urchin and the Lobster!!! They are usually a disaster waiting for a place to happen.

Something I regret buying and will not get again is a bi color blenny. I didn’t realize these guys eat SPS. I was wondering why my sps frags kept dying and all my parameters were where I wanted them.Passing by the tank and see my blenny going to town on a birds nest frag.

0:50 not all hermit crabs are recommended for cleaning crew because people who know what they're doing would only recommend blue legged hermits or red legged hermits that are tiny and couldn't kill a turbo snail if it's life depended on it.

I’ve had a sand sifting star fish for just over a year and I’ve only been reefing two years 😃

Strange, up north it seems the smooth skin Brittlestars (including the killer Green ones) are always referred to as "Serpents" & the non-smooth ones as Brittlestars.

pretty solid list and i had bad experiences with most creatures on it. one that i would include is the Sally Lightfoot crab. they were considered reef safe and were heavily encouraged as cleaners back when i was new to the hobby. and they are excellent cleaners. but once they reach a certain size, they decide scavenging is no longer enough. out of nowhere, they can go predatory and become killing machines that make quick work of shrimp, other crabs, and small fish. and they're lightning quick as their name suggests. incredibly difficult to catch and remove

My worst purchase HAS to be a chromodoris nudibranch, they only eat 1-2 species of sponge, and those sponges that it eats aren’t available in the hobby, making them impossible to keep. after a week it nuked my tank. I feel bad, knowing that it got taken out of the wild where it had a chance to live.

4:53 remember the captive bread ocellaris clownfish don’t even host with anemones at all unless trained to. And I have seen ocellaris host with a bubbletip after sharing the same tank for years, so it doesn’t really matter what kind of anemone you use they’re all equally hard to get them to host with.

Thanks for tips. I just started my reef tank a few days ago I had an idea to bring urchin but I advised not.anemones too

Always wanted to have these creatures as a pet. Never had the money so here I am watching the videos...

I'm going to have to disagree with the bta. Like with any other animal for a reef aquarium, you need to plan. For bta's it's best to introduce them while the tank is pretty empty. Try to find a spot they like and they shouldn't move as much. Use a power head protector to eliminate the risk of the nem turning into a milkshake. Make sure your corals are movable just in case it decides to take a hike. I really think bta's are gorgeous animals that just have a bad rep because of impulse buys and not planning ahead. Also urchins can be a pain but they are amazing clean up crew.

I have a formia red star. Had him forever. The trick is to feed them. Twice a week I feed him mysis, rotifers, and Cyclopes. Put the food right under them and they will live happily

Subbed cause everything you say is no doubt 100% spot on. I'm right now getting my bta back to my lfs.

I’m sorry bud but all of my clownfish have been hosted by my bubbletips.

Emerald crabs. They say reef safe, but I've purchased them multiple times just to find out they would trap and eat my fish and pick at my coral.

I have three bubble tips, with two clowns living in them for the last 7-8 years. The only problem is that they split, so I've given away 5-6.

100% agreed with the damn hermit crabs 😤

I've had 2 sandsifting starfish in a 125 litre for over a year now. Worried to move them over to my 770 litre now.

I have had so many different clowns that have never seen an anemone and they all took to the BTAs immediately. Also, when they go for a “hike” they don’t kill everything they touch. When they find a place they like then they start, but you usually have a day or two to move them. Other than that great video! (Although, in a good system coralline algae grows faster than a urchin can eat it.)

Bubble tips have always hosted any clowns I’ve kept.

My percs host my bubbletips, I say bubbletips as I started with one and now have nearly 30 !!!!! Grrrrrrr , now I want them all out !!!! Lol

Agree on the hermit. Mine dwindled down to one and he eats every clean up crew I put in.. he even survived 6 months in the sump..

I Have each and every everts he mentioned , and they doing FINE !

Far worse than any of these, is anything that poses a serious threat to your personal safety. A saltwater supplier a few miles from my home learned about this when an unannounced specimen of Blue Ring Octopus turned up in an invert shipment. That one was VERY quickly donated to a public aquarium facility. They weren't going to sell that to a member of the public no matter how much money they were offered.

The sand sifting star needs a minimum of 3 inches of sand bed in my experience and Need it to constantly be somewhat dirty if the bed is to cleanor they will die I drop a few algae wafers and bury them in the sand once every 2weeks

Newbie here; by no means am I saying they're bad as a species, but I bought a little feather duster a little while ago that only lasted 5 days. I dosed phyto feast daily, ensured it was in a good position, and it seemed happy during that time. Then one day it didn't come out of it's tube, nor the day after that. I decided to investigate and found nothing but an empty tube; definitely the worst invert I've purchased so far.

You are totally on point

You’re so funny but also so right. I answered, “Yes, I’ve had starfish that have lived for very, very long.” And then, “……yes, I have no idea why.” 😂

Loved this video fab facts included for newbies too

I bought 3 hermits as my first ever purchases. The ones with bright blue striped legs. All three are still going strong but I am sure they eat my snails! Could I put them in the sump or do they need good light?

It’s taken me six reef tanks to realise life is so much better for my snails and LPS corals without hermit crabs and shrimp.

Thanks for sharing. Great insight.

i have seen some wild coral frags were i live they are so pretty they aren’t as rare as you would think seeing them in the wild

I laughed so hard on the Reef lobster bit....LOL

Really, really good video! 😀👍👍

The bubble tip is great for hosting clowns. Poor choice for number 1.

ive done nothing and my tank was dead for like a year and the sandshifting survived and lived for almost 4 years

I’ve found out that if I feed the star fish a shrimp every two days , they service

Hermit crabs full stop. They have full soccer hooligan energy and drive my whole tank nuts.

Worst purchase was a red foot algae snail in the early days. I bought it b/c it was pretty. It starved my turbos and all but 2 astreas that I had to trick into eating seaweed to keep alive and kept getting stranded on power cords from eating the algae off if them, refusing to come off for long until it starved to death as well. 55gal tank. Way understocked before the mass die off, I kept it that way ever since.

My flame scallop gets clean by my neon goby I think it’s fine it’s moved spots twice in 3 months

I had hermits with a puffer fish, sold the puffer to get corals, without app the extra food for them to eat that the puffer left behind, they to tearing apart my acans

🤣🤣 I bought a reef lobster 2 weeks ago and im yet to see it

I have a 40 gallon anemone/softie tank. The solution to avoid BTAs being blended by a powerhead or wavemaker is pretty simple - I rely entirely on the return for flow. If I wanted to add a wavemaker, I would just choose one with an anemone guard. In my experience they just don’t need a large amount of flow. I would certainly think twice about having BTAs in a tank with valuable corals though. I don’t care if mine sting the fairly common softies I have. That said, that hasn’t happened yet, and there is a grand total of six BTAs in there!

Just thought my gladiator clowns were weird as they choose to live in a branching hammer coral when they are surrounded by about 40 rbta 😡😡👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻good advice once again👍🏻

Who doesnt love hermit crabs? but even me who is a fresh water fish keeper who can only dream of one day owning a tank big enough for a 3 spotted damsel fish and being able to afford a salt water set up knows hermit crabs are hell to keep, most crustaceans and shrimp are even in fresh water fish keeping but the hermit crab is notoriously hard to keep alive apparently.

I have 2 red fromia, an orange linkia, and a dalmation linkia for almost a year and all seem to be doing good. I’m wondering if it has to do with the age of the tank because the tanks were over two years old when I first put them in there.

wait what ate your clownfish?

My reef lobster killed every fish in my 100 gal a total of 8 kills mans was insane

Why did you show and identify the coral banded shrimp, and not mention it? I have kept them with cleaner shrimp for 32 years in countless tanks with zero issues. Why did you show it?

Im glad u mention hermit crabs indeed never again throwing coral around monsters are them

I have a bubble tip that host my orange and black clownfish

I hate my hermit crabs, I have one that is really cool, but my red tipped hermit crabs just kill stuff (snails, shrimp, etc)

Hey your that guy from the Reef Dork show

Conches, always climbing on my rocks and knocking down my sps corals and suffocate them to the sand 🫤

Sally lightfoot crabs. That's my only personal regretted invert. "Reefsafe-ish" is a crappy kind of gambling to play and when one does decide to, it may go on a murderous rampage and just annihilate whole coral colonies in one night that they ignored for 2 years. Crazy little bastards and an absolute nightmare to remove from the tank

thanks 4 u r tips !

I disagree with urchins and nems. Nems really only start to suck when they split. Getting them out is hard. But I have been very fortunate to have them find a spot and stay there for months and months, and my clowns live in 3 of them currently.

I would say sand stars are pretty good

My ocelaris live in my sherman BTA'a. The only issue I have is they reproduce too much and take over

OK what is the best anemone for a porcelain anemone crab?

My lobster is to shy for any thing you said soo i guess there all diffrent hes 5 years old now bought as a baby

Reduced my hermits from like 10+ to 1 small one

Probably flame scallop. I love it and it’s not that bad but it keeps blowing my sand around

Why are flame scallops a terrible choice?

question: did you say that catophilia coral kill fish?

I rehomed my urchins today after a year because they were consuming every speck of coralline that appeared! Really liked them otherwise, but I want some of that purple goodness.

Good list

Maroon clownfish host bubble tip anemones in the wild.

0:34 I LOVE HERMIT CRABS >:(

My chocolate chip starfish was killing my turbo snails

Why did you single out bubble tip anemones almost all anemones have the same problems and a way worse choice are harlequin shrimp because they only eat starfish

Whew me and my long tenticle anenome are safe. Since i dont own a bta.

4:41 I thought that was a brute 55 gal bin

Wait why are flame scallops bad? They look so cool.

Thoughts on pistol shrimp?

I think number 1 is why anemone and clownfish only tanks are becoming popular.

Pretty ridiculous comment in the video about hermit crabs vs. snails. Yes, hermit crabs will kill snails when they want a new home. Solution? Scatter some empty appropriately sized empty snail shells in your tank. It's just that easy.

I've had all of those problems if only you made this video 2 years ago lol

Sea Urchins the biggest hoarders in the world !!!! never again, big mistake I ever made. Hermit crabs are ok, if you provide them empty shells that are big enough. Anemones nice to see but mine went suicide and got blended...

5:12 what was the name of coral that ate the clown fish?

What Ate your platinum clown male ??

all my clowns live in bubbletip anemones, never had a problem

Love it