Bimac co-inhabitants?

[LiquidFunk]

Im still in the learning portion of the ceph world, and am setting up the stage for a Bimac. I however woud like to have as much interest in the tank as possible besides just the octo. my question. What can live with an octo. I have read anemone, pincushion, and LPS are bad, they have nasty stings that can damange a ceph.

BUT, what about zoas? shrooms, xenia, GSP, pipeorgan etc?

excuse my spelling,,, english was never my forte'

FYI, I have a successful 150g (200g total sys) full reef with SPS, LPS, anemone, etc, I know what IM getting myself into

thanks for the insight! I dont want to "burn" my new friends skin, but at the same time, I dont see how a few shrooms could hurt?

 

[cthulhu77]

In the wild, stinging corals and anemones pose little threat to octos, as they can easily manuever around them...but in a closed environment like a tank, it is inevitable that your ceph is going to bang into them at some point (like a panic reaction when someone walks in the room)...so it is best not to include them in your setup...

greg

 

[silverarm]

So far, the only thing in my tank that Cthylla hasn't taken any interest in at all is the serpent stars. It's an excellent idea to get some kind of cleanup crew for a ceph, but they love crabs, shrimp, and snails, so there aren't all that many options left.

 

[LiquidFunk]

Zoas dont sting do they? Do octos make toys of softies like zoas and shrooms?

also what about macro algaes? I have some ... dang cant think of it macro algae right now, and I figured it would make for good hiding places for a baby bimac.

Anyone know about sand sifting critters like stars, burrowing snails (probably end up as lunch), and cucumbers?

 

[Jon123]

I have grape caulerpa and fern macro with mine, altho somtimes he decides to rip them up, but they grow so fast its little more than an annoyance. I have a brittle star and the octo leaves him alone completely. I did add some nassarious sand snails, but the octo sifted through the sand and pulled them up one by one over the coarse of a month, so no, sand critters are not safe!

Jon

 

[LiquidFunk]

so it sounds like pretty much any star is safe, at least at worse it will be a frisbee toy At least brittle stars are good ditrivours and will clean up scrap food.

on my local club forum I have been asking about the stings in corals, someone said Xenia has no sting what so ever. Ive got tons of pom pom, and it grows like a weed too, so that might be a cool addition,,,

Maybe it will even like to hide in the xenia forrest too.... Ill keep doing more reading and see if I cant confirm someone who had luck with xenia and cephs.