Bi-Weekly Discussion of the Week: Clean-Up Crews

[yardboy]

It was my first dive after getting into reefng.I promist that is the last thing that I'll get, and I promise I'll take good care of the things I got on that trip. Do you want the arrow crab?

[SPC]

These are the ones that I have, Yardboy, pincushion urchins http://www.etropicals.com/product/sc...43&pCatId=1199

These urchins have very short spines, and yes, they will carry anything that is not nailed down . I usually check them once/day to make sure they aren't carrying any live snails.

Not to worried as a through reading of the 2003 Florida fishing regulations lists urchins as "marine life" subject to collection under a special commercial license

Hmmm, I don't understand this , I'll see if I can get Jerel to chime in with what he knows.
Steve

[Spanky]

LOL not to worry. I'm not going to bust you.

Commercial harvesting is allowed on a piece by piece basis, mainly because you can't study something you can't get your hands on. We also allow a small amount to be collected for the pet trade.

The good news is the diadema are coming back in leaps and bounds. They're not really algae eaters though, more rock scrapers. They're eating the biofilm.

[yardboy]

SPC,
I wonder where they are getting the pincushions? $4.00 each and they are "extremely difficult to breed in an aquarium".
So much for my "get rich quick on urchins" fantasy.

[SPC]

Originally posted by Spanky
LOL not to worry. I'm not going to bust you.

Commercial harvesting is allowed on a piece by piece basis, mainly because you can't study something you can't get your hands on. We also allow a small amount to be collected for the pet trade.

Has the collection for the pet trade just changed recently Jerel? Maybe there was a few dealers I missed, but every Fla collector that I talked to has said that they were illegal to harvest.

good news is the diadema are coming back in leaps and bounds. They're not really algae eaters though, more rock scrapers. They're eating the biofilm.

So you are saying that they are not specifically targeting the algae, but that they will injest it if it happens to be in their rock scraping path?

Originally posted by yardboy
SPC,
I wonder where they are getting the pincushions? $4.00 each and they are "extremely difficult to breed in an aquarium".
So much for my "get rich quick on urchins" fantasy.

I would imagine that they are quite plentiful like most urchins are.
Steve

[Geoff]

ok, keeping with Echinodermata. what about stars? i personally are afraid of green brittle stars. have had them before and they are just to freaky for me. all those central disc oscilations just freak me out.

what about serpent, brittle, and bristle stars?

G~

[CAT]

My clean-up crew consist of snails, snails and snails

1) I have astreas for film and hair algae (no hair algae for a long time now).

2) nassarius snails to clean up food and stir sand.

3) cerith snails to clean the yucky film on the glass by the sandbed, and stir sand. They also seem to eat the cyano on the glass in the fuge (need to change the bulbs again).

I would get a cuke or conch but my tank isn't big enough.

Oh yeah, and a fire shrimp -- guaranteed to eat any dead fish or critters in a matter of an hour, eats extra food (plus a good chunk of squid and mysis every day), and will eat any caulerpa that makes it's way up from the fuge.

[tdwyatt]

I have a very LARGE green brittle star in the Tank in Wellford, and since its 2nd anniversary in the tank, I have not been able to keep fish smaller than 4 or 5 cm in length, as they just mysterioyusly dissappear overnight... ...eating well one day, active, no diseases, the next day, gone! No carcass, not carpet surfing, no nitrate surge in the system, NOTHING! I don't keep a lot of fish (they all MUST have a role in the ecosystem), but I still wanted to keep the little firefishes, they just seem to disappear one by one when I have purchased them. I have seen this seastar exhibit the "caging" behavior under the rock many times, but cannot say that I have actually seen it capture a fish in this manner, but the amount of circumstantial evidence points to the sea star. I have to say, leftover foods have never been an issue in this system, and I do feed on the light side...

[ruhspolostar]

My cleanup crew, is awesome but i think I need one more invert algae eater, I want an urchin but I'm afraid it will poison my tank, how hard are they to keep...should i just stick with my redfoot moon snails, there pretty cool, except I have to help them flip over about once a week...

[Geoff]

an urchin will not poison your tank any more than anything else would if it died. some sea cucumbers on the other hand, can cause quite problem if they die. the times that i have heard when a cuke has poisoned a tank it was becaue the cuke was threatened before it died. it seems i mainly hear about them getting crushed by the water intakes on filters

G~

[ruhspolostar]

seems like everytime I have a question you're there to help, your gonna be replacing my books (j/k but only to a degree) soon if you keep it up...

-THANKS!!!

[Geoff]

it is all about knowing where to look in the books. i must look through my books on a daily basis. answering questions and just trying to learn more. now if i can just get Scott W. Michael to release Volume 2 and 3 of reef fishes i will be a happy camper.

G~

[wasabi]

just upgraded my cleanup crew, i have always relied on a good mixture of snails and hermits . 200 scarlets, 300 bluelegs, 100 ceriths, 250 astrea,200 turbos,1huge cuke,10 serpent/brittle stars. 40 peppermints.

[Geoff]

those of you who use hermits. do you buy extra shells for them to grow into? do you just let them fight it out with themselves who gets the Taja-Ma Shell? or is it, i thought that is what the snails were for.

G~

[LittleFishBoy]

I like to throw extra shells in there... Why would you want a dead critter? Thats less that'll get eaten.... Ive even witnessed 2 hermit crabs switch shells before... Quite the site to see. Kinda funny too.