Cleaner Crew

browniebuck

Active Member
A variety of snails (nassarius, mexican turbo, astrea, maybe a conch), cleaner shrimp, peppermint shrimp, anemone crabs, porcelain crabs, emerald crabs....DEATH TO HERMITS!!!!! I know that most people say that hermits should be a part of the clean up crew, but all of mine are snail murdering little $%#^!!! Seriously, we have spent well over $200 on snails that turned into nothing more than hermit meals and empty shells (if you are going to kill the snail, at least take their freaking shells!!!)
 

stumpyfish

Member
Originally Posted by browniebuck
http:///forum/post/2501368
A variety of snails (nassarius, mexican turbo, astrea, maybe a conch), cleaner shrimp, peppermint shrimp, anemone crabs, porcelain crabs, emerald crabs....DEATH TO HERMITS!!!!! I know that most people say that hermits should be a part of the clean up crew, but all of mine are snail murdering little $%#^!!! Seriously, we have spent well over $200 on snails that turned into nothing more than hermit meals and empty shells (if you are going to kill the snail, at least take their freaking shells!!!)
gotta buy snails way bigger than your hermits
 

browniebuck

Active Member
dude...makes no difference. I have devil hermits (dwarf blue legged and scarlet legged). We had turbo snails that were about the size of a racquetball, and they eventually became hermit snacks. They have taken out a total of 3 queen conch over the past year (here, they actually have taken up residence twice, which is pretty funny to watch, as the shell is WAY too big for them). In my 55, I currently have MAYBE 3 snails left (out of about 40 or so that we have had over the last year). In my wife's 29, we have 0 snails left out of about 25-30 that she has had throughout the past 10 months. These things don't even take up residence (there are plenty of empty shells for them to use, so that can't be their reason), they just eat the snails to do it...almost like the snails are invading their territory.
 

clownfish11

Active Member
okay im gonna be trying with the next 2 weeks soonest this weekend latest next weekend and then ill tell you how it went..
 

kas2247

Member
Ditto on the hermits. Not only did my blue legs kill all of the snails, they also killed all of my scarlet hermits and now are killing each other. I'm waiting until I'm down to a few, then I'll get more snails and put whatever hermit(s) that survive in the sump. I figure eventually they'll take care of my problem for me.
Cleaner shrimp are awesome (AND they're only $4.99 on this site right now!). I love my peppermints too, but didn't see much of them for the first several months they were in the tank. Now they're out all the time. Emeralds are awesome to watch and porcelain crabs are SO cool when they open their frilly claw things to catch food. I have a fire shrimp that's coming tomorrow, along with a new brittle star which are really good scavengers but should only be added if your tank is pretty mature & stable (learned this the hard way). They're a little creepy looking, but really neat to watch.
That's pretty much the crew that's taken over my 55gal!! Hope that helps.
 

clownfish11

Active Member
there not 4.99 hwen you got to checkout it equals $24.97..so it might just be better to buy one..you think??
 

kas2247

Member
Well... that's the catch. You have to have a minimum order on here of like $89 (I think that's what it is). After that, there's $20 in fuel & surcharges, so really you're going to have a minimum order of $100. But the prices are usually at least a few dollars cheaper here than in an LFS. Because of that $4.99 cleaner shrimp, I ended up spending $170, but got a whole bunch of stuff for that price. It would have cost a lot more than that at an LFS. I just couldn't stop! I had some Christmas money left and had to spend every penny on fish (plus a few pennies). Anyway, my point, if you're buying one cleaner shrimp, yes it's probably cheaper to just go to a store. If you're buying a bunch of stuff, you'll usually make out better here. The stuff is always good quality from this site, too. I'm very excited to get my $4.99 cleaner shrimp tomorrow
(and the other $165 worth of stuff!!!)
 

kas2247

Member
Scratch that, the cleaner shrimp price went back up to $19.99 (which is still a good deal if you're ordering a lot of stuff). Glad I got in when I did!
 
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