6 Best Marine Creatures for the Beginners’ Aquarium

What you want as a beginner is some hardy species for your marine aquarium, the kind of fish and invertebrates that will not require a lot of diligent care, that can survive even in subpar conditions and that are not too expensive so that you can easily replace them if they die. Lets face it, keeping a marine aquarium is a difficult task and you will need to keep it simple until you get some experience. Here are some of the absolute best marine creatures for the beginners.

1. Cleaner shrimp
They will eat just about anything you give them and will clean other organisms of parasites - they will sometimes join cleaner wrasse and other cleaning fish in performing their duties. These shrimp like to hide from predators so they need a sufficient amount of rock to take cover behind and some hiding places. Because the cleaner shrimp are sensitive, the things you need to watch out for are rapid changes in water salinity and also make sure the lighting is dimmed down. They are usually the first inhabitants of an aquarium, right after the nitrogen cycle has come to it’s conclusion, when they will happily clean the tank of all the algae.

2. Wrasses
The wrasess family, Labridae, is quite big and diverse. Most of the fish in this family are small, no more than a few inches, and many of them are brightly colored. They feed on small invertebrates, the smaller species tend to follow bigger fish and eat what is left. For the aquarium a cleaner wrasse is an excellent choice, being hardy, reef safe and an efficient cleaner.

3. Cowries
These are a group of sea snails with vaguely egg-shaped, shinny, porcelain-like shells of astonishing patterns and colors. The word porcelain itself comes from an old Italian word for cowries, and a particular species called the money cowry were used as a form of currency for a long time and even in some divination rituals amongst African tribes. This shows just how aesthetically pleasing they are considered. Another beautiful specimen is the tiger cowry which likes rocks and hiding places and is active mostly during the night. It goes along well with starfish, but may eat some anemones and soft corals, so a little care must be taken in a reef aquarium.

4. Clown fish
You can search all the seven seas to find a better marine aquarium fish than the clown fish, but you will turn up empty-handed. It is a great choice for both the beginner and the experienced hobbyist. It has very pleasant colors – orange with white stripes and some black areas. They form a symbiotic bond with anemones so they are perfect for reef aquariums, they require very little care, but can sometimes be a little aggressive towards other fish because they will defend the anemones if another fish tries to eat them. A weird little bonus you get with them is that children will instantly recognise them as the fish in Finding Nemo, and spend quite some time staring at them – and any amount of time a child is sitting quietly is a gift from God.

5. Crabs
The porcelain crab and the hermit crab are the best options – they look nice and are interesting to watch as they move around. Although they are both technically not true crabs (they are more closely related to the squat lobster) they do have that classic “creature of the sea” look, the porcelain crab in particular has very big claws and are known to lose limbs if being attacked. The hermit crab doesn’t have a shell of its own and it will take various materials to use as a shell, it is fun to watch them do this and you can put different things in your aquarium for them to use.

6. Gobies
The gobies are a member of the larger family of fish, so you have a lot to choose from. Most of these fish are very small (less than 10 cm) and are therefore suitable for most fish tanks – be it smaller nano reefs or bigger marine aquariums where they can serve as pray to the larger creatures. Some gobbies can live in symbiotic relationships with burrowing shrimps and are known as watchmen gobies because they alert the shrimp of danger. There are also cleaner gobies like the beautiful neon goby which can be both attractive and useful, but a finer grain substrate is required.

These are the six marine creatures that will require the least amount of hustle - they aren’t that picky with their diet, they can thrive even in substandard conditions, they will get along with each other quite well and most of them are excellent cleaners. Once you hone your marine aquarium keeping skills on these creatures you can then move up to more delicate species, although clownfish and gobies can be found even in an expert’s tank.