clean up crew.

[aslmx]

Going to get a clean up crew this week. Whats the difference in a full crew from reefcleaners or just buying 300 snails off ebay. I only have a few hermits {5} left in my 75 gallon. I'm leaning toward the full crew from reefcleaners. Any suggestions?

 

[skinz78]

I try to steer clear of a lot of snails, if anything go's wrong and a bunch die at once then you are looking at a possible tank nuke. I would get a mix of critters and put them in there.

I would do like ten of each in the 75g and see how they do:

Astrea snails
Cerith snails
Blue leg hermits
Red leg hermits
Zebra hermits.

 

[btkrausen]

Agreed. A mix of different snails and inverts will give you better results, as they will all munch on different types of algaes.

 

[nixer]

i cut out the hermits completely. i just got tired of buying snails.

 

[btkrausen]

I have a few in my tank, and they have been eating my Nassarius snails, as they are running around in their shells. I like to keep a few of them, mostly for looks and I think they are cool looking, but they will kill snails for sure.

I actually have very little in terms of a cleanup crew in my tank. Nassiarius snails, a few turbos, and a few crabs.

 

[nixer]

the blue leg ones are the worst. i watched one kill 4 cerinths in an hour and he couldnt fit in any of their shells

 

[Rayzback]

Definitely a small mix. I love my clean up crew! They are fascinating to watch, especially when the lights go out. I think the smaller the hermits the better. In my tank, the bigger ones tend to go after snails and steal food from the corals. I’ve caught my wrasse eating a small hermit a few times...kind of neat to watch.

 

[btkrausen]

Ugh...I pulled about 6 Nassarius snails from my tank today, but I know there are still plenty in there. If I keep seeing more, hermits will be banished to the frag tank.

 

[dougers31]

Definantely go for a varied mix of snails, skip the hermits for the most part. I like ceriths since they have the ability to stir the sandbead, nassarious will too but for some reason I can;t keep'em alive for more than a couple of months. Astreas are also good with different types of algae.

 

[swayd]

What's wrong with nassarius snails?

 

[fsu1dolfan]

I have bought from reefcleaners a couple times and John always has great stuff and shipping to Florida is cheap. He also has nices macros too. I also agree on no hermits. They killed too many of my snails before I realize they did more harm then good.

 

[Dave3112]

I'm the opposite. I say the more hermits the better. I probably have 100 or more small blue legs in my 220. Along with about 40 each of cerith, nassarius and turbos. I think the trick with hermits is to keep them fed. I use some sinking pellet type food about once a week for them and they don't seem to pick off my snails.

 

[steamer51]

Crabs are "opportunistic omnivores" which means they will eat whatever uses the least amount of energy to consume. Eating pellet food or algae is easier than killing a snail but they will if they need a new shell and there are not any available. I personally do not keep any hermit crabs as I don't want to take a chance that one of my snails (that I am very attached to) looks good for lunch. My original rock had four hermits hitchhike in and I put them in my rock tub (for future set ups) after I found them in the tank. Couldn't ever see one so one night I turned the lights out and dropped a nice piece of shrimp on the sand (no fish at that time) in the front of the tank. Came back 10 minutes later and picked him right out of the tank with his dinner.

 

[florida reef]

Crabs are "opportunistic omnivores" which means they will eat whatever uses the least amount of energy to consume. Eating pellet food or algae is easier than killing a snail but they will if they need a new shell and there are not any available. I personally do not keep any hermit crabs as I don't want to take a chance that one of my snails (that I am very attached to) looks good for lunch. My original rock had four hermits hitchhike in and I put them in my rock tub (for future set ups) after I found them in the tank. Couldn't ever see one so one night I turned the lights out and dropped a nice piece of shrimp on the sand (no fish at that time) in the front of the tank. Came back 10 minutes later and picked him right out of the tank with his dinner.

Good advice/funny story!