Too Many?

[kynekke]

I am making a SWF.com purchase and I need some crabs and snails. Right now in my 55 gallon I have 2 mexican turbo's, 1 small turbo, 4 nessarius snails, 1 Emerald crab and 4 red hermits (pretty little ones).
The SWF.com snails and crabs I want each come in 10's. Here's what I have in my order :
Cleaner Clam (can I put that in a sand-less fuge?)
Jade Hermit - Group of 10
Nassarius Snail - Group of 10
Turbo/Astrea Snail - Group of 10
Porcelain Crab
Queen Conch - Aquacultured
Is that too much of a clean-up crew for a 55 gallon?

 

[jesses89]

no its not too much,
I wouldnt put a cleaner clam in anything sandless, as they burry themselves in sand... and thats what they feed on by filtering the sand.
Id also add 10 more of those astrea snails

 

[pontius]

I have seen in one book's recommendation of 1 cleaner (crab or snail) per 1 gallon of water. so you'd be good to go with at least 55 cleaners. and I think it would not be a problem even if you went over that number.

 

[alix2.0]

nothing against SWF but personally i wouldnt order their Astrea snails. they ship them without water and on both occasions i have ordered them they were completely DOA. maybe you could ask them to ship them in water in the special instructions? but if not i would just get them from the LFS.

 

[matt b]

Originally Posted by alix2.0
nothing against SWF but personally i wouldnt order their Astrea snails. they ship them without water and on both occasions i have ordered them they were completely DOA. maybe you could ask them to ship them in water in the special instructions? but if not i would just get them from the LFS.
i know same thing happend to me

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Kynekke
I am making a SWF.com purchase and I need some crabs and snails. Right now in my 55 gallon I have 2 mexican turbo's, 1 small turbo, 4 nessarius snails, 1 Emerald crab and 4 red hermits (pretty little ones).
The SWF.com snails and crabs I want each come in 10's. Here's what I have in my order :
Cleaner Clam (can I put that in a sand-less fuge?)
Jade Hermit - Group of 10
Nassarius Snail - Group of 10
Turbo/Astrea Snail - Group of 10
Porcelain Crab
Queen Conch - Aquacultured
Is that too much of a clean-up crew for a 55 gallon?
How old is your system? That is a large cleanup crew for a 55. Most will starve if this system is under 8-10 months old. Skip the cleaning clam.

 

[kynekke]

It's 8 months old... I already hit the order button

Can't I put the cleaner clam in my DT? I think it'd be kind of interesting.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Kynekke
It's 8 months old... I already hit the order button

Can't I put the cleaner clam in my DT? I think it'd be kind of interesting.
Sure you can. They are filter feeders though and likely to eat the microfauna in your tank. Your crabs will eat the leftover food from your fish. Don't add extra, they will find enough. Your Nass snails will be fine. You may or may not lose some turbos though. Be sure to drip acclimate everything for 3-4hrs.

 

[kynekke]

I'm a newb.. what kind of microfauna would I have in my tank that I may not want him to eat? I could use a few gazillion less spaghetti worms so if that's it then

Is he coral safe?

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by Kynekke
I'm a newb.. what kind of microfauna would I have in my tank that I may not want him to eat? I could use a few gazillion less spaghetti worms so if that's it then

Is he coral safe?
The clam will not touch your spaghetti worms nor your corals. I was just doing a bit of searching for these clams. They are getting VERY mixed reviews. Some say that they can help with the nitrates, others say that they do nothing at all. This is not scientific data, I just checked out another board which has reference to this one. They don't seem to be harmful to your sand bed though at all, unlike other filter feeders.