how many

[neah84]

just curious on how many total should i get of snails and hermit crabs?
i have a 46 bow tank with a soon to be total of 70 lbs of lr and around 70lbs of ls/sd
one website said 2 hermits/gallon and 1/2 snails/gallon. now i thought that 90+ hemits was WAY too many for a 46 gallon and was thinking maybe around 20 total and as for snails u think 23 is too many? thanx
justin

 

[ivanfj]

It's better to add your clean-up crew slowly. If you add them all at once and say if you don't have enough algae, then some will be fighting for food and some may just starve to death. Add maybe 20 hermits and 10 snails or so and see how they do first.
HTH

 

[overanalyzer]

I think 1-2 snails per gallon
my 5 gallon has 7 snails and 1 hermit. I think I could use another couple of snails ... but the tank has been up for a while. I'd look @ maybe 10 hermits and maybe 20-30 snails .... if you have algea and "stuff" for them to eat

 

[slick]

Look over to the right and click on reef packages. They sell clean up crews pre selected quanities. I would recommend one of these.

 

[hookedonreefs]

If ivanfj suggests adding clean-up crews slowly, then explain that contradiction to swf.coms full reef cleanup crews. Don't get me wrong, I definately want to order from here, but I also want to do what is best for my animals. Would adding say an entire 55 - 90 reef package be, in the end, detrimental to the crew and the overall system?

 

[overanalyzer]

Originally posted by hookedonreefs
If ivanfj suggests adding clean-up crews slowly, then explain that contradiction to swf.coms full reef cleanup crews. Don't get me wrong, I definately want to order from here, but I also want to do what is best for my animals. Would adding say an entire 55 - 90 reef package be, in the end, detrimental to the crew and the overall system?
Your clean up crew will "clean up" your tank (hence the simple name). Once your tank is clean they will need to continue to eat. If you have a new tank with very little algea or waste for them to eat then they will slowly starve to death. You will lose some of the crew and then this will feed the remaining crew members .... then your nitrates will rise becuase of the dead critters - you will get another algea bloom and your clean-up crew will ahve more food ..... not very efficeint and it always does not work this way.
I prefer to add the LR and LS and get everything settled in the tank .... then I add one or two snails just to keep some of it in check (in your case I'd add about 10 or so) you will have to manually clean the glass and keep up with the water changes to keep the red slime and hair algea from blooming. Then after your tank has had some time to live you could add your clean-up crew of massive proportions. You will still lose some but you will always lose some!
I prefer to lose the least amount possible - so that means - empty shells for the hermits and plenty of food for the critters!

 

[mightyoxjuice]

my clean up crew consists of about 150 hermit crabs minus the number that have died or been killed and approximately 25 snails in my 150 gallon tank. I add pieces of scallop to feed the hermits, because otherwise they would starve to death.

 

[mightyoxjuice]

That and they beat up the snails and steal their shells.

 

[mightyoxjuice]

hermits at feeding time

 

[mightyoxjuice]

As you can see from the above pic the hermits are like bees going to flowers at feeding time. Sorry that the pic is a bit fuzzy.

 

[legion]

I think I can see the legs of a sallylightfoot above? That would be a good addition. Mine didn't like my black and white damsel and gave him a little gash, but the black and white was a bully(he went home to the pet store). May be a starfish too. Do some research on the star some are very dangerous and some are not. These two will be able to large volumes waste and large chunks of waste respectively. If you go with a star you may want to spot feed it on occasion.