Weekly Discussion: Clean up Crews

[biowheel]

What's the typical span for a pep ? I think I'm gonna add a couple more snails because mine are like glass magnets. Just stuck there . Sometimes for a day or so . LOL .

[Mr.Peanut]

Originally Posted by biowheel

What's the typical span for a pep ? I think I'm gonna add a couple more snails because mine are like glass magnets. Just stuck there . Sometimes for a day or so . LOL .

Tom, I could send you at least 50 baby snails if you want. I have over 100 in there now.

I had 2 baby snails give me fits today. They got into my skimmer. One got stuck just before the impeller so he caused the pump to vibrate enough for me to hear. The other got all the way thru and got stuck in the water outlet. Causing my skimmer to stop skimming.

[biowheel]

Originally Posted by Mr.Peanut

Tom, I could send you at least 50 baby snails if you want. I have over 100 in there now.

I had 2 baby snails give me fits today. They got into my skimmer. One got stuck just before the impeller so he caused the pump to vibrate enough for me to hear. The other got all the way thru and got stuck in the water outlet. Causing my skimmer to stop skimming.

That would be awesome. I can shoot you a PM with the info

[three90s&125sump]

Peppermints... I don't know but IME its only a couple months max.

[jenglish]

As a general statement inverts reproduce fast in the wild... and don't live that long.

Which brings up another related question...

How often do you call in for CUC reinforcements? I am curious if mixed snail/crab CUC people reinforce their snails more often than those who keep only snails.

[jenglish]

I shouldn't say only snails.... what I mean is a crab free tank

[aquawolf]

I just bought replacements on Sunday and they were delivered Monday. It consisted of 10 dwarf blue leg hermits, 10 scarlet reef hermits, 10 cerith snails, 10 nassarius snails, and 5 mexican turbo snails. They were distributed among my 3 tanks, and it is the first time I have bought more than 5 snails in over a year.

[three90s&125sump]

Originally Posted by jenglish

As a general statement inverts reproduce fast in the wild... and don't live that long.

I have been saying fire shrimp and meaning blood shrimp. I think they are the same though. Anyhow... Cleaner shrimp and blood shrimp will both live over two years.


I also think sand kills more snails than hermits do.

[Elegance Coral]

IMHO. Any critter that reduces the load on the system would be part of the CUC. I once used a Snowflake eel as part of a clean up crew. He did create a huge load on the system by himself, but he was able to clean areas that I could not get to. Having a haddoni/carpet anemone put limitations on the design of the system. Several times a day, he would create clouds of detritus that would erupt from behind/under the rocks. If he were not there, that detritus would simply build up and create a much larger load than he did, so he created a net reduction of the bio load.

Animals that can survive in our systems without direct feeding from us, do remove nutrients from the system. It requires energy for a snail to crawl from one side of the tank to the other. They get this energy from the nutrients they consume. It is burnt up like gasoline in your car.(for a lack of a better analogy) The amount of poo they discharge will never equal the amount of food they take in. Can you emagion the day after Thanks Giving if you had to discharge all that turkey?

With that said, filling a tank with CUC critters is not a path to a clean system. A few can help reduce the amount of organic matter that's available to bacteria, but if the system has enough organic matter to support a large population of CUC critters, it has some problems.

As always, that's just MHO.

[Geoff]

i have kept peps for many months if not years. once they get big they get pretty secretive. i have also used true ghost shrimp as clean up crews. not the ones acclimated to FW, but the ones that are brackish to SW originally.

G~

[BlackwaterMerk]

Hmm well lets see, my diamond goby keeps my shallow sandbed nice, My turbo snails eat the light yellowish algea that forms on the glass when I leave my lights on for too long, I have 2 emerald crabs that make work of hair algea, and One pepp shrimp that I have for the sole purpose of eating aiptasia.

[biowheel]

Originally Posted by Geoff

i have kept peps for many months if not years. once they get big they get pretty secretive. i have also used true ghost shrimp as clean up crews. not the ones acclimated to FW, but the ones that are brackish to SW originally.

G~

That's what mine are doing . They are very secretive . They have been hiding and the one is much bigger than the other. Both are maybe 3 months old ish

[random]

Originally Posted by Elegance Coral

IMHO. .
With that said, filling a tank with CUC critters is not a path to a clean system. A few can help reduce the amount of organic matter that's available to bacteria, but if the system has enough organic matter to support a large population of CUC critters, it has some problems.

As always, that's just MHO.

Hi! any tips on how to tell if the 'crew is too big?
we have a 29 gal (done cycling but no fish yet) and a healthy pop. of small (1/4 - 1/2 inch) snails - some collonista, & another kind with a long, narrow, striped shell; stomatella; plus 1 jade(?) & 5 (...maybe only 4) blue leg hermits.

Thinking about getting a couple of shrimp, but not sure what kind. Totally up for suggestions, though