Clean up Crew

[splenda21]

I need some type of fish or invertebrate to help clean up my tank. The problem is that I have a lionfish and a pufferfish in a 125. That barely leaves me with any options. I plan on getting a yellow tang, but is there any other fish or invertebrate that can help the yellow tang out? Any suggestions?

 

[ibanez]

I would try some great big zebra snails, but I am not sure if the puffer would leave them alone.

 

[rcreations]

Big Mexican Turbo snails, that's always worked with my agressive fish.

 

[noah's nemo]

IDK much about puffers,but i think they are alot like triggs and my triggers took out my turbos.They were golfball sized.

 

[richard kagen]

Our solution for our 125 with triggers (pacasso & Niger) and puffers (dogface and porcupine) was to use the cheap supplier out of FL for a big shipment of snails, many of them seem to be very nocturnal which seems to be saving them. In time we will likely need to buy more as it is a fish eat snail world in there.
IM me if you need the name/link
We did
50Dwarf Cerith
20Florida Cerith
30Nassarius Vibex
20Nerite Snails (Large)
30Nerite Snails (Small - Medium)
it is pretty active in there late at night

 

[bigtankbigfish]

Originally Posted by Richard Kagen
http:///forum/post/3270031
Our solution for our 125 with triggers (pacasso & Niger) and puffers (dogface and porcupine) was to use the cheap supplier out of FL for a big shipment of snails, many of them seem to be very nocturnal which seems to be saving them. In time we will likely need to buy more as it is a fish eat snail world in there.
IM me if you need the name/link
We did
50Dwarf Cerith
20Florida Cerith
30Nassarius Vibex
20Nerite Snails (Large)
30Nerite Snails (Small - Medium)
it is pretty active in there late at night
Ditto. I used the same supplier he did. I have a 125 fowlr with a very active picasso trigger. I have found that the best bet is too load up on the cheapo blue leg hermits, they're expendable and pretty active on the rockwork. I have found that like Richard said, the smart CUC only come out at night when the fish are sleeping. When I added all the CUC at once (over 200 pieces) the trigger only went after the nassarius snails that landed upside down and exposed themselves. Another good sign is my 2 foot eel doesnt eat the CUC either. My advice, try a small assorted order from a big supplier, see how the fish react to each type, then load up on the type they dont like to eat.

 

[richard kagen]

Funny - when we were starting out with aggressives we went to the LFS to buy some CUC and the kids got so angry with us that we were buying snails and crabs that would eventually get eaten that he refused to selll un any and went around to the other guys and warned them not to sell to us. So stupid, we try to never buy anything there anymore, but it is the closest for us.
We like to think of a bunch of snails as vacation feeders...

 

[richard kagen]

The Nerites seem to be the most light sensative and by morning are all cluster either at the very top or in rock crevaces. I have no idea where the ceriths spend the day, but they are all over the glass and rocks at night. We run a single blue led moonlight.
Our picasso trigger is so crazy that I hold him off with a feeding stick so the puffers can get at the clams on the 1/2 shell that we feed.

 

[bigtankbigfish]

Originally Posted by Richard Kagen
http:///forum/post/3270116
The Nerites seem to be the most light sensative and by morning are all cluster either at the very top or in rock crevaces. I have no idea where the ceriths spend the day, but they are all over the glass and rocks at night. We run a single blue led moonlight.
Our picasso trigger is so crazy that I hold him off with a feeding stick so the puffers can get at the clams on the 1/2 shell that we feed.
Lol, I know exactly what you mean. Mine goes bezerk when he sees a plastic cup in my hand. I feed my tank one frozen cube a day, and i thaw it out in a 12oz plastic cup. When i dip the cup in the water the trigger literally swims into the cup and wont come out. I can pull him out of the tank and let my friends pet him and he doesnt even care. They are by far my favorite species of fish. Your right about the nerites, I threw a few in my little 9 gallon reef and they all stay at the top during the day, then at night they clean the glass real good. I have moon lights so I see em workin hard. I plan on ordering another 200 hermits for my 125 to bring the total somewhere around 300 hermits and 100 snails
richard, what type of puffer you got. I have tried a small porcupine three times over 4 years and never had one live longer than a week and never eat a thing. Any tips or advice? I;ve kept every species of trigger ever successfully but cant keep a puffer to save my life

 

[srfisher17]

I may be in the minority, but (IMO&IME) a CUC is way over-rated and hardly a necessary component of a healthy fish-only tank.
BTW, Many puffers can really get really make life miserable for lionfish--they find the flowing fins irresistible.

 

[richard kagen]

We have both a porcupine and dogface. Both around 3"
For the porcupine feeding was a bit of a challenge. We started him on live ghost shrimp (unfortunately the big trigger kept bitting him in the face due to the puffer habit of chewing and spitting). We then moved him to mysys, frozen clams on the 1/2 shell and broken grocery store clams.
A couple of weeks ago be collected some fiddle crabs at the beach and fed them. All hell broke loose as the puffers and triggers went wild for these 1" crabs. We were watching as the porcupine puffer lost his grip and a crab climbed up on his back. In less than a second, he was totally inflated and rolling back and forth until the crab fell off. It was way cool.
With all of these messy eaters we also have 2 huge hermits (one white spot, red and hairy and the other is more grey both a couple of inches. We hace one huge turbo which no doubt we will eventually loose to these hermit crabs.