cleanup crew for aggressive tank?

bean 1

Member
How does everyone keep their aggressive tanks clean when most aggressive fish will eat a standard clean up crew? I have a semi-aggressive 46g but the hawk and hamlet dont bother the snails/hermits/ or emerald crabs. The reason I'm asking is that I plan on incorporatiing some of my existing fish and some new fish into a 400g that will be built into the office of my home once it is finished being built. I want it to be a semi-aggressive/aggressive tank. I've purchased almost 700# of LR over the last 2 years that will function as my biological filtration. The tank is a tenecor marine ready aquarium. The planned stock list include the following (starred fish I already have) Blue Hamlet*, Indigo Hamlet*, Shy Hamlet, Hawaiian Squirrelfish, Red Spotted Hawk*, Vagabond Butterfly, Foxface*, Racoon Butterfly, Lamarck angel, Blackspot Angel, Paddlefin wrasse or harlequin tusk, Bluechin trigger*, and Crosshatch trigger. Thanks Bean.
 

lion_crazz

Active Member
Most people have to clean their aggressive tank manually. Fishes like wrasses and triggers most likely will eat your clean-up crew of snails and hermits. I know any kind of snail or invert that goes into my tank is puffer food. You'll just have to spend more time hand-cleaning it and gravel-siphoning.
 
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irenicus

Guest
I have to do mine manually. Sometimes I have snails, my fish don't seem to bother them much.
 

bona42na

Member
I have 2 cleaner shrimp, 4 starfish ,4 or 5 fighting tongan conchs and a queen conch along with about 2 dozen nassarious snails and some good sized mexican turbo snails. Without a puffer in the tank these guys all do reasonable well. My Humu Trigger eventually gets all the snails but the nassarious ones and the conchs stay under the sand till dark when the trigger sleeps. This gives me a few months at a time before eventually replacing them. My Majestic Angel and Purple Tang dont bother my inverts. My sandbed stays very nice while I still have lots of cleaning to do on the tank walls. HTH Peter
 
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