What are some of the rarer animals in this hobby?

[Daniel@R2R]

What are some of the rarer (and/or odder) animals kept in saltwater aquariums? What are some of the ones that interest you?

Photo of sea apple by @icycoral

 

[DSC reef]

A tridacna gigas We've always wanted one.

 

[Seawitch]

Well, all the wild and crazy macroalgae featured here would probably qualify, but they aren't animals....

 

[Greybeard]

A tridacna gigas We've always wanted one.

Used to be common... I had one, many years ago. Heck even Squamosas are getting to be hard to find.

I've always been interested in cephalopods. Done a great deal of research into keeping them, and, to this point, I've sortof decided that most types of cephalopods are better off left in the oceans... except, perhaps, certain species of cuttlefish???

Sepia Bandensis, for instance.

There have been a good many successful hobiests breeding these creatures now. No, they don't live long, but as long as they're breeding well in captivity, I don't see how much this would matter. They're not terribly expensive, as eggs... (they don't ship well as adults).

One of these days, perhaps. My shallow 140 gallon soft coral reef would seem a nearly ideal cuttlefish home

 

[chris85]

Owner collected livestock.

 

[ca1ore]

A tridacna gigas We've always wanted one.

Yeah, I would like to find one too. They aren't imported (or cultured) anymore, so if you do find one it's been in somebody's tank for a decade and is going to be HUGE!!!!

Not as rare-in-the-hobby as they used to be, but the Mauritius fish variants were always appealing to me. I have three of them currently.

 

[andrewkw]

These are mostly oddballs rather then rare, but some things I've had in the past include :

Garden Eels - they are so fun to keep. The interaction between them, the fact they are afraid of everything including their own shadow.
Octopus - Short lived but also fun to interact with. I kept 2 O. Briareus at different times.
Dwarf Cuttlefish - super expensive to feed and their whole lives are done within a year. Probably the weirdest looking things I've kept.
Sand Dollar - I still have it dried out somewhere, lived in my reef for a few months before it was eaten by polyclads.

I really miss going to the fish stores because you never know what you are going to find. One of the things I hate most about living in the middle of no where. A chambered nautilus is the only thing I'm banned from keeping (they freak my wife out), they do require really specialized care but I'm pretty sure under the right circumstance I could pull it off, and unlike the other cephs these guys actually live a few years. I am interested in rare angelfish and wrasses but my budget only allows uncommon ones. The super rare ones can cost 10s of thousands and a couple hundred is the max I can comfortably spend on a fish.

With Malaysian corals hitting the market I am somewhat hopeful there will be new to aquarium species imported. Obviously they are a lot closer to Indonesia, but I was just thinking about when Australia first opened up how exciting it was getting Duncans a coral no one on this side of the world had seen. One thing I haven't seen in a long time but still do appear to be available, at least online is a really yellow fiji toadstool.

 

[Joshua Kerstetter]

My favorite seller has Christmas tree worm rocks, first one he posted our Facebook private group exploded over comments, they're really cool. For myself? I guess people who see my tank think my Longhorn Cowfish is the most unusual thing I have.

 

[Softhammer]

Gigas clams

 

[mort]

Used to be common... I had one, many years ago. Heck even Squamosas are getting to be hard to find.

I've always been interested in cephalopods. Done a great deal of research into keeping them, and, to this point, I've sortof decided that most types of cephalopods are better off left in the oceans... except, perhaps, certain species of cuttlefish???

Sepia Bandensis, for instance.

There have been a good many successful hobiests breeding these creatures now. No, they don't live long, but as long as they're breeding well in captivity, I don't see how much this would matter. They're not terribly expensive, as eggs... (they don't ship well as adults).

One of these days, perhaps. My shallow 140 gallon soft coral reef would seem a nearly ideal cuttlefish home

Go for it, they were one of the most interesting creatures I've kept but equally one of the saddest when they lay eggs and go through senescence. You do have the new generation to look forward to however and that nice tingly feeling that you've achieved something.


My rare animal is my rhizotrochus typus. I've had it about 8 years now and I've only seen that three for sale ever here and mine came from that group. It was captive cultured in Germany.

 

[fish farmer]

Octopus.

I kept one in my first saltwater tank when I was like 12. They had them all the time for $30 at the LFS. I was running a 20 gallon tank which I would pack full of crabs and other critters I would find at the beach. I got my octopus after my last day of camp in August. First thing she did in my tank was find a rock crab and eat it. Eventually all my crabs were gone. She laid eggs during this time, which did hatch. I was able to bring a few eggs with my microscope to the LFS so the workers could check them out. She died on Halloween night.

I could have scored an O. bimac from a local college who does behavioral studies with them. They a pretty big from my liking. Curled up they were grapefruit sized, but stretched out you would have a mini kraken on your hands. They had one that was a handful, you could hand feed....or feed your hand depending on how it went. They would feed them live fiddler crabs. I think they only live 2 to 3 years.

 

[S-t-r-e-t-c-h]

I've always had a thing for stingrays. There are quite a few smaller species available that can live in sub-500 gallon systems. Was considering setting something up for a Urobatis halleri for a while, but have largely scrapped the idea. They're still cool though and you can find tank bred pups if you look for them. Maybe at some point...

Some of the other Urobatis species are cool too, but mostly harder to find and some are more piscivorious, making them especially hard to mix with other species. I'll be the first to say, though, that bluedot rays should be largely left in the ocean...

 

[vetteguy53081]

Sea apple, sea cucumber, various nudibranchs, baby octopus, squid, naupilus, mantis shrimp and bobbit worm

 

[Lolipop0912]

Anyone here for Dwarf Seahoeses? I had them in my aquarium a while back and they thrived and were AWESOME pets.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Anyone here for Dwarf Seahoeses? I had them in my aquarium a while back and they thrived and were AWESOME pets.

They're still around. There is pygmy, brown, white, red, and are very common throughout Florida amongst seaweed and grasses which are plentiful along beaches

 

[Lolipop0912]

They're still around. There is pygmy, brown, white, red, and are very common throughout Florida amongst seaweed and grasses which are plentiful along beaches

In Florida, they’re common. But where I live, I could only convince one person to ship them and only 6.

 

[andrewkw]

My rare animal is my rhizotrochus typus. I've had it about 8 years now and I've only seen that three for sale ever here and mine came from that group. It was captive cultured in Germany.

How big is it? I have a rhyzo as well and I don't think it's grown at all over the years despite frequent feedings and occasionally catching a fish in my reef.

 

[Proteus Meep]

In my nano its my three Coco Worms that count as my rarer animals as they don't turn up that often in the uk

 

[Cassian]

I have a Skeletor eel. used to be really rare until Live Aquaria started carrying them year round.

 

[mort]

How big is it? I have a rhyzo as well and I don't think it's grown at all over the years despite frequent feedings and occasionally catching a fish in my reef.

It's roughly 3" across at the top when closed and double that when expanded. It wasn't very big when I got it as it's a captive cultured one but think they live hundreds of years naturally and many nps like them can be painfully slow growers. Not lost anything to it but it can eat very large meals. My goal is to get it to reproduce one day.