Inquiring minds want to know...

[windlasher]

So SWF sells these big honkin clean up crew packages, right?
I have been reading about cleanup crews and there are some theories that say that in addition to eating dead fish and all, that they also pretty much decimate the life in the sand bed when they are hungry. And we all have seen them attack snails not clever enough to stay stuck to the glass out of reach.
Lets assume that I spend $200+ dollars on one of these packages. IS there a rule of thumb like live rock that’s states how many you need per gallon of water, square footage of tank, etc?
The question is… Do I really need to put 100 snails and 100 crabs in my tank like the SWF store says, knowing that the crabs will eventually become fat on a diet of escargot when the main fare of dead fish, old food, and missed tidbits are not available?
Also what snails and crabs are less destructive than others? Crabs that I catch snacking on my corals immediately get “sumped”.

 

[crypt keeper]

Emerald crabs are very safe. I have 15 snails a mixture of them in my 75 with 10 hermits again a mixture and nobody eats anybody and my levels are great. I also have 3 peppermint shrimp.

 

[wangotango]

I'm not a big fan of hermits personally. They'll take snail shells and IMO don't do as nice of a job cleaning as snails do. You could use something like a serpent star in place of the hermits to take care of scavenging. More fun to watch and probably do a better job too.
Not every invert will decimate the population of stuff in sandbeds, but if you do decide to add some sort of sand-sifting fish or invert I would wait at least a few months for the bed to become established.
-Justin

 

[spanko]

IMO a well rounded population of snails will suffice as a clean up crew. If you must have hermits I like the red legged reef hermits better than the blue legs.
Nassarius, Cerith for the sandbed cleaning and shifting.
Trochus, Nerite, Astrea for the rockwork and glass.
Florida Fighting Conch for the aestetics of keeping the top of the sand clean.

 

[windlasher]

Originally Posted by WangoTango
http:///forum/post/3056961
I'm not a big fan of hermits personally. They'll take snail shells and IMO don't do as nice of a job cleaning as snails do. You could use something like a serpent star in place of the hermits to take care of scavenging. More fun to watch and probably do a better job too.
Not every invert will decimate the population of stuff in sandbeds, but if you do decide to add some sort of sand-sifting fish or invert I would wait at least a few months for the bed to become established.
-Justin
The bed IS established. Its a 2 year old 500+ gallon system. I was just wondering as the crabs have munched most of the snails and If I replace then, I wanted to know how certain flavors of CUCs worked.

 

[meowzer]

I bought some red scarlet hermits....they seem to only come out at night though

 

[renogaw]

the only thing that will deccimate the micro fauna in your sand bed is going to be a sand sifting animal, such as a star or a goby. i personally like hermits because they will eat left over food that gets onto the rock, snails won't and can't get into the small areas hermits can. i like snails cause they keep the glass somewhat clean, hermits wont (although they are becoming accrobats and climbing up my coralline on my overflow...).
i've never ever lost a snail to a blueleg or red scarlet. to the evil zebra hermit, and a weird hermit that had a big claw, yes. but never the blue or red hermits.

 

[windlasher]

Originally Posted by renogaw
http:///forum/post/3057042
the only thing that will deccimate the micro fauna in your sand bed is going to be a sand sifting animal, such as a star or a goby. i personally like hermits because they will eat left over food that gets onto the rock, snails won't and can't get into the small areas hermits can. i like snails cause they keep the glass somewhat clean, hermits wont (although they are becoming accrobats and climbing up my coralline on my overflow...).
i've never ever lost a snail to a blueleg or red scarlet. to the evil zebra hermit, and a weird hermit that had a big claw, yes. but never the blue or red hermits.
Good to Know. I do have a sand sifting star in there. I see him once in a while. Since I installed a Phosphate reactor, I don't have much algae on the glass, but I get the point. Thanks for the info... and yeah, whats up with crabs crawling up the silicone. little weirdoes.

 

[crypt keeper]

hahahaha/ Mine do it all the time. They have no idea where they are going. They just go.

 

[naclfish]

i think the crabs get a bad wrap..the hermits that is. While i have seen them in the snail shells and such snails do not live forever and the hermits are scavengers. imo the best cuc is YOU lots of rock lots of flow and lots of water changes