How many cleanup crew do i bring to the party?

rushprop

rushprop

Member
Going into our third week with our new 29 gal biocube and are starting to get our clean up crew.
Right now we have:
5 crabs(4 medium small and 1 very small)
1 coral banded shrimp
5 snails, (2 big mexican turbos, 1 unknown, and 2 sand sifters
seems to me like we should have more, but we went to a lfs the other day and the guy told us that we had enough. wondering what you all thought? thanks everyone. btw, we have cured liverock and live sand in the tank now, and a couple small coral frags. oh and some aptasia, that i just found out was a bad thing.
 
robdog696

robdog696

Member
If the unknown snail has a cone shaped shell then it is probably an astrea. I would get about three more of these. I'd also add an emerald crab. I'd probably get another two sand sifters, as these eat detritus (uneaten fish food and fish poo). Everything else just eats algae. Finally, I'd for sure get a peppermint shrimp. They eat aptasia!!! Yay! If you look over on the left hand side of this page there is a link called "Reef packages" that will give you a suggested amount for your aquarium. Personally, I keep a pretty small cleanup crew. So I think your lfs guy is on crack if he thinks you need less than I do. LOL! Good luck!
 
rushprop

rushprop

Member
why should we ditch the hermits? They are kinda nice to have in there, something more to look at, ya know. plus im going to have to have a good reason when i tell my girlfriend we are getting rid of them. since right now thats about the only thing in there, and everyday she hounds me to go get fish.
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
I see no reason for you to buy more at this time. You have no fish, therefor no fish poo. The tank will have several stages of algae, some of which the inverts will not eat anyway. The peppermint shrimp and some more nassarius snails are a good idea, but nothing else yet. Wait until you have natural foods for them to eat. JMO
 
rebelprettyboy

rebelprettyboy

Active Member
lol just ditch them once u get the snails. U aint gotta do it now. Just as soon as a snail turns over its lunch for the hermits. and they knowck corals over more than snails! Its esp annoying when they kill a snail for a shell when u have extras laying around
Just keep like on Small one.
 
rushprop

rushprop

Member
Good point, as the crabs seem to get all over everything, i couild see them knocking stuff down. Do you think it would be ok to get a sally lightfoot instead of an emerald crab?? we kinda wanted to get one of those anyways. thanks again guys, this site is great.
 
sepulatian

sepulatian

Moderator
Originally Posted by rebelprettyboy
http:///forum/post/2679791
lol just ditch them once u get the snails. U aint gotta do it now. Just as soon as a snail turns over its lunch for the hermits. and they knowck corals over more than snails! Its esp annoying when they kill a snail for a shell when u have extras laying around
Just keep like on Small one.
Definitely. I have hermits sporting Nassarius shells, turbo, and mexican turbo shells. I bought extra shells for them. I don't even know how they got the nassarius shells being that they stay in the sand most of the time. They come out once in awhile to grab food at the surface, I guess that is when they grab them.
 
rebelprettyboy

rebelprettyboy

Active Member
Originally Posted by rushprop
http:///forum/post/2679797
Good point, as the crabs seem to get all over everything, i couild see them knocking stuff down. Do you think it would be ok to get a sally lightfoot instead of an emerald crab?? we kinda wanted to get one of those anyways. thanks again guys, this site is great.
I got a sally light foot and i dont like it lol. At least emeralds may eat ur bubble algea if have it. My Sally Light Foot touched my 2 pieces of bubble I had to pick them off!! lol
But yeah u could get one if u wanted. Get both. Just dont get all this stuff to soon!
 
rushprop

rushprop

Member
yea, i guess i could def. see a couple of the bigger hermits looking at my turbos shell thinking they are about to jack that. maybe i will give the hermits a bit and then trade them for the sally and the emerald. Was at lfs the other day, trying to buy a sally and the girl trying to get it was having no luck. Those things are freakin fast. anways, it wasnt happening for her, so we told her to forget it. kinda made me not want to get one, kinda seemed like once it got in there, it'd be impossible to get out, without tearing everything down. tough deci. cause i do like the way they look.
 
stanlalee

stanlalee

Active Member
As long as you have two large mexican turbo snails I wouldn't be so certain more is required for algae removal. I have 4 astrea and 6 cerith in my 30g which is on the low side but I do 10g water changes every week and have an oversized skimmer. I'll probably add another 5-10 which 20 should be enough for any 30g. Dont got crazy on nassarius, you want primarily algae eaters until the tank is well established and stocked. I dont have any at all yet. when I had a large tank with anthias and had to feed twice a day nassarius were my favorite snails, bulldozing from out of the sand when feeding to eat the left over or whatever fell to the sand but they arent really that useful in my 30g that gets fed every other day and sparingly. I like cerith, they do everything: eat algae off the rocks, off the glass, detritus and diatoms off the sand, sift the sand (a little). they are probably the most all purpose snails.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top