clean up critters

[Cobalt]

Any ideas? online or lfs? i broke my arm so i am inclined to do online... looking to spend about $150-200 on 'em (90g)

i've heard blue legs kill each other
i've had bad luck with serpent stars eating fish

any others i should avoid? cowries?

[MegaDeTH]

>i've heard blue legs kill each other

havent heard this, but they sure look like they are trying to, man they are entertaining

I would go with a few hermits, moderation! some astrea snails, and some nassarus snails.

Pices in jonesburro has a cleanup kit, 55 $ I believe, not too bad a price for hermits & snails

[georgiajams]

Are those nassarus snails the ones that bury themselves in the sand and you only see their little "periscopes" from time to time? Man, they are something. A friend has one of those. They actually come out of the sand looking for food when he feeds brine. When I get my larger tank going, I'm getting some of those suckers.

I haven't had any Astrea snails, but I really have a distaste for the Turbo snails. Darn it if I don't have to tip them over all the time. They would be munching away on the glass, then they stop and get narcolepsy. Slowly, slowly they would lose their suction and just plummet to the sand bed where they had to be righted by me. Eventually I got sick of flipping them over and just let the crabs make lunch.

I really, really like the margarita snails. They are black with a sorta whitish/silvery top. I never see them flipped over and they do a great job on the glass and rocks.

My red leg hermits seem really lazy, or else they just do most of their work at night. During the day, they just sit there. I find them in the same spot all the time. I have two blue leg hermits and I only occassionally see them. They are pretty small.

My emerald crab is pretty good. He's great of you have any bubble algae, but is a good all around scavenger. He's gotten kind of big, and that makes me nervous around the smaller fish, but overall he's a positive.

-Chris

[MegaDeTH]

Yeah the nassarus bury in the sand, neat little guys

I too hate turbosnails, they knock everything over.


Astrea's can self right, except in southdown, that stuff is so silty they cant flip themselves over.

redlegs are wierd, they dont behaive anything like bluelegs, and mine all stay together in a little pack, very slow and methodical about cleaning the rock

I too like margarita snails, better than astreas, because they are smaller, stomatilla are even better, they reproduce in tank, if you can find somebody that will part with some.

Emeralds can be bad, I've seen repeated posts about them terrorizing softies, I have kept them sense I started, without any trouble.

Some pepermints (2-3, so they add plankton for corals too) would be a nice addition, non destructive, may steal food from LPS if you target feed. And some develop a taste for aiptasia

[ckreef]

Originally posted by MegaDeTH
Emeralds can be bad, I've seen repeated posts about them terrorizing softies, I have kept them sense I started, without any trouble.

Mine was OK while small but after he got big I caught him tearing a piece off of a green finger leather.

When I immediatly went to retreive him he just hunkered down like I couldn't see him. His mistake.

He spent the rest of his days in the Sponge Bob Home for Wayward Crabs.

Charles

[robsweet]

I just picked up most of my cleanup crew at Marine Fish over the last few weeks. They were very helpful about explaining the options and advising me about what to get and how many. Almost as important, there was no pressure to get lots of critters right then and there. I got the impression that while they'd be happy to sell me hundreds of dollars of critters, they didn't mind if I bought slowly. I was quite impressed. Their one of the Club's sponsor stores so you should be able to find their info at the club site.

The only other stores I've been to are Fish Store & More (pretty terse and un-helpful) and Jenn's store, Imagine Ocean. Jenn was also helpful (and a club sponsor) but her shop is a little out of the way for me.

For what it's worth, here's what I got for my 65 so far:

- 12 blue-leg crabs
- 12 turbo snails
- 1 queen conch
- 1 peppermint shrimp
- 3 emerald crabs

I'll probably go get another half dozen snails and a lawnmower blenni but so far, so good.

Good Luck!

[intekhab]

This is just personal interest....

I will not include any "crab" of any kind in my new reef tank. As a matter of fact, all hermit that I have will be bonush hitchhiker for those who take my rock from old tank (soon available for trade )

I never saw any crab killing anything, but I always felt nervous with having those critter in my tank .

My cleanup crew should look something like this...

-nassarus (hermit substitute
-Cerith Snail
-Astrea Snail
-Stomatella
-varios pods
-Bristle Worm (smaller kind)
-a brush
-may be my nephew

So far doing well. I picked up few hitchiker crab and put them back in my other tank. Soon somebody will take them with the rock.

[MegaDeTH]

I love crabs, they are the most entertaining part, I've got tons of hermits, 2 emeralds, and a sally lightfoot (mr hyperactivity)

[intekhab]

Crabs are indeed interesting (especially emeralds). Whenever visitor comes to our house, they find two emeralds fighting fascinating . I love 'em too. But I am going to try hard not to include any crab in my new tank. Let's see if I can stick to that.