Quick! How many cleaners is to many?

jenajet · 04-20-2007, 12:52 PM

Hubby is going to lfs on his way home and wants more crabs and snails. have about 8-10 mexican turbos and 10 or so small hermits. I can't really do small snails cause the hermits kill them but not sure about adding more turbo's. This is the 90 btw. What is a good number? Not alot of algae but lots of food from feedings so they won't starve. Wanting more snails to help with the algae on glass which is the only place it does grow. Also asked for a large hermit or decorator if they have one. I am going to the other lfs when he gets home to get the frogspawn but this one doesn't really keep many inverts.

TahoeMtn · 04-20-2007, 01:30 PM

I would be careful of a "Large hermit" they get pretty big and I have heard of them catching fish and also tend to run around the tank like a bulldozer knocking over rocks and coral

jenajet · 04-20-2007, 01:43 PM

No no no no no large hermits. Learnt that lesson the hard way. First one I got killed all my turbo's then didn't even move into their shells. He tried them all on but always went back to his origional shell. I like the blue legs. Anyway when he got there he found the store moved, went to the new location and they won't be moving their livestock till tomarrow. How long do you think I should wait before buying. I am a little nervous about getting anything after such a large move. I know I have moved tanks without much issue before but we are talking a whole store getting moved in one day. There is bound to be some effect wouldn't you think?

Twitterbait · 04-20-2007, 01:50 PM

Honestly it depends on how much algae you have growing. i would keep the crab population low and go with more snails. if you have a consistent algae probelm then look at 20-25 snails and 10 crabs max... if you don't have big algae problems then go with a lower number like 10 snails and 5 crabs.

jenajet · 04-20-2007, 01:53 PM

No not much algae except on glass which I have to scrape daily. Figured more snails would help control that. Hubby just likes to watch the crabs crawl around.

Twitterbait · 04-20-2007, 02:15 PM

keep it simple then. 10-15 sm-md snails and 5 crabs.