CUC - Suggestions

garick

garick

Member
I've started keeping smaller tanks now, and I get a fair bit of brown coloration on my sand. These tanks have been up over 5 months now and I've tried snails (turbo's and such) they keep falling on their backs. I've tried hermits (scarlets and blue legged) but they seem to fight and kill each other.
I guess what I am asking is for suggestions on deterius eaters, sand sifters, and good hardy CUC that will clean with me.
 
garick

garick

Member
The tanks are 11 gallons. Yea I have nassy snails. They are awesome for junk eating but I've yet to see them eat the brown that gets on my sand. I know that when food hits the water they come running. Should I just go with more? I've only kept like 1 per tank.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Originally Posted by Garick
http:///forum/post/3225041
The tanks are 11 gallons. Yea I have nassy snails. They are awesome for junk eating but I've yet to see them eat the brown that gets on my sand. I know that when food hits the water they come running. Should I just go with more? I've only kept like 1 per tank.
LOL...yes I would get more...how about a couple of ceriths
you can get an emerald crab too....
 
garick

garick

Member
I get cerith snails but something keeps literally eating their shells.
So what 5-6 nassy's per tank then? 1 emerald per tank? I only have about 10-15 lbs of LR per tank.
 
btldreef

btldreef

Moderator
Trochus snails can flip themselves over, you may want to look into them, although, they may not help that much with detritus.
For a 10-15 gallon tank, I would do 2-3 Nassarius snails, depending on their size when purchased.
You could try a small sand sifting goby. But one day most will outgrow the tank.
Instead of blue legged hermits or blue knuckles, try tiny Mexican Reef Hermits. They're usually cheaper, more effective and less aggressive. They're the only hermits I use anymore, and I loose a lot less snails now. The first sign that they're getting too big and aggressive, out they go and I trade them in for smaller ones.
You may also want to consider cutting back onvthe amount of food you give, or spreading it out over a longer period of time.
Honestly, I have the same issue in my 14G from time to time and I have a decent sized CUC. Occasionally I just lightly stir the top layer of sand and do a water change.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Originally Posted by Garick
http:///forum/post/3225053
I get cerith snails but something keeps literally eating their shells.
So what 5-6 nassy's per tank then? 1 emerald per tank? I only have about 10-15 lbs of LR per tank.
Eating their shells?????
also do you have good flow in the tanks?
IMO 6 nass would be ok....remember, they say 1 snail to every gallon
 
garick

garick

Member
Yea, Literally. I saw a cerith snail in one of my tanks yesterday with big like gashes taken out of its shell. Like it had been ran through a can opener or something. They went in a circular pattern around the shell.
Sort of like some people peel oranges. It went in a circular spring pattern.
 
meowzer

meowzer

Moderator
Originally Posted by Garick
http:///forum/post/3225092
Yea, Literally. I saw a cerith snail in one of my tanks yesterday with big like gashes taken out of its shell. Like it had been ran through a can opener or something. They went in a circular pattern around the shell.
Sort of like some people peel oranges. It went in a circular spring pattern.
What do you have in there with it??
 
garick

garick

Member
A peppermint shrimp, a bi color blenny, a firefish goby, some blue legged hermits, a nassy snail, some green button polyps, orange ricordea, yellow polyps and that;s about it.
 
garick

garick

Member
shouldn't be there supposed to be plant eating hermits and besides they are only
that big and the ceriths are easily half to an inch long
 
geoj

geoj

Active Member
Sounds like an unknown hitch hiker. The hermits want the shells and can pull a snail free with no damage to them.
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
broken shells usually = mantis shrimp...
fighting conches will eat your diatoms (it's probably not detritus)
 
geoj

geoj

Active Member
Murex Snails
The animal feeds by drilling a hole through the shell of bivalves or other shelled animals and inserting its long proboscis to ingest the prey. Most species exude a yellow fluid that, when exposed to sunlight, becomes a purple dye. The dye murex (Murex brandaris) of the Mediterranean was once a source of royal Tyrian purple. Another member of this important genus is the 15-centimetre (6-inch) Venus comb (M. pecten), a white, long-spined species of the Indo-Pacific region. Other members of the Muricidae include small, modestly ornamented shells given various names. The oyster drill (Urosalpinx cinerea) and dwarf tritons (genus Ocenebra) are pests in oyster beds. Drupes (Drupa, Acanthina) are colourful Indo-Pacific shells. Dogwinkles or dog whelks (Nucella) resemble periwinkles and feed on mussels and barnacles.
 
garick

garick

Member
It isn't really broken shells. Its a spiral that follows the way the shell spirals down. Its as if it were made of clay and you took your fingernail and gouged a trench 3/4ths of the way down the shell following the spiral of the shell itself only a shallow trench though.
It can't be a mantis cause my fish are not bothered.. I think. I've never heard clicking at all either.
 
renogaw

renogaw

Active Member
my mantis is in my quarantine tank, which has housed new fish with no problems, and i never hear him clicking, even when breaking up periwinkles.
if the shell is getting eaten in a spiral, then yea, it's not a mantis, probably that snail listed above
 
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