Replenishing clean up crews

[justinx]

I am wondering how often you all replenish your clean up crew. I just restocked mine entirely after a year. My hermits have now been replaced once. I dont really know where they went, but they slowly started disappearing. Snails did the same thing but at a faster rate. I have replaced my entire snail population about three times in the past year. Does this seem on par with what you guys do?

 

[broomer5]

Yeah it seems like a pretty tough life for the janitors.
Some of my snails/hermits have been with me for years.
Others - seem to go MIA now and then.
Snails occasionally die - hermits grab their shells.
Both hermits and snails get stuck in crevices in the liverock stack.
You may not even see them - but take out some live rock now and then and look - you'll see shells wedged into places in the rockwork. Tough way to go - trapped like that.
I found a small pile of turbo shells down under my rockwork - in a small ditch like area. Maybe they couldn't get out or that's just where the shells accumulate - not sure.
Anyway - yeah I stoke up my shelled clean up crew about once a year too.

 

[harrysreef]

Justin, thanks for posting the question I replace mine about every 9 months. Thought it was mainly a fish attacking problem (which I have) now it seems it is also common with others. The wrasse must not be as hard on them as I orginally thought.