if i could get away with it id combine my seahorse tank with my reef ( im actually in the process of trying to figure out how to get away with doing that right now )

Haha that last photo is priceless SP! There just "loving" each other :lol:.

The fu-man-chu won't eat hermit crabs.

will an rbta mess around with my hammer coral?

lol!!!, looks like the frog fish is getting the choke hold....lol

sphelps! fantastic pictures!

I love breaking the 'rules'. This is a hobby where everyday we learn more...where nothing is gained without experimentation!

id have to say a combination of two of them
keeping predators with more passive fish is one of them (keeping my barracuda and sharks with damsels, a small clarks clown and clown tang) yet alone keeping a barracuda
as well im breaking the predatory invert rule, ive kept a mantis in my reef tank and cube for over a year with just the odd cuc going missing, even further i used to keep a wartskin angler with my Lysiosquillina maculata aka zebra mantis with no problems

As was pointed out to me at the beginning of the thread, this thread is a make believe thread. A fun thread.

As reefers, we don't experiment with the creatures in our care, though experts and scientists in our hobby do.

I'd have to agree here. This hobby is a massive experimentation especially when considering each of us has created our own marine ecosystems. Adding and removing variables all the time. If everyone went by the books, well depending on what book you were reading, you may not even be growing corals! This hobby seems to advance in technologies quite rapidly, especially over the last 10 years or so. My dad used to have a salt water aquarium when I was a kid and protein skimmers sure were not available back then, for example. And considering it seems like many authors of the marine books out there started out just as humble aquarists, I say play on. Having said that, I think a dose of ecology and invertebrate zoology would help some people... and sticking to this general rule... everything needs food. haha

Well said!