Weekly Discussion: Clean up Crews

[Geoff]

What clean-up crews do you have in your system. why did you choose these critters? which critters did you avoid and why?

G~

[YLChik]

I'll go

I have a mix of snails
Margarita, Astrea, and Cerith - they are all "suppose" to eat various algae

when I had a sand bed I also had a serpent star and narrarius snails to eat up the detritus and excess meaty foods.

I also have a tuxedo urchin that scrapes all the crud off my live rock - I love this guy as part of a CUC.

I have had red legged Mexican crabs in the past and I find they eat my snails so while fun to watch, I got tired of them eating snails. I do still like a few scarlet crabs they don't seem to eat my snails, and they fun to watch as they pick at the rocks.

[Elegance Coral]

The only critter I buy just for their cleaning ability is turbo snails. I usually have a few hermits that come in as HH's. Naturally, I have the usual bristle worms and pods too.

[scoop]

I've got a couple of turbo grazers a bunch of astreas, a bunch of ceriths, about 6 zebra hermits, a small urchin and a starfish. My tank is bb so it limits what 'critters' I can put in, but I got the urchin and the starfish just for fun and they have been around over a year and I think they add something a little more unusual to the tank. I got ceriths because i read that they eat astrea poop (?), and I got the hermits to eat leftover food and any 'extra' stuff lying around in the tank.

[biowheel]

I have 4 snails and 2 peppermint shrimp and a LMB . They all do the very basics . Kinda like my kids . My snails like to hide in the internal overflow box . Now my peps are ? Why is that ? I just took the smaller of the two out tonight .
I chose the sails on the recommendations of someone here! The peps I just liked and knew they would eat any uneaten food from feeding my nem and torch.
I avoid hermits and crabs because my rock is gravity set and I have heard they knock everything over. I have a 34g and feel that is enough but I have nothing to base that on !

[aquawolf]

I have Mexican Turbo, Astrea, Margarita, Nerite, Nassarius, Cerith, snails. I also have Dwarf Blue Leg and Scarlet Reef Hermits. A huge Brittle star and one gigantic Emerald Crab. These are spread between my 3 systems.

I bought them for the sole purpose of eating algae and detritus.

I also have Asterina Stars, Stomatella Snails, Bristle Worms, and tons of Pods that I did not purchase from a shop.

[garry]

i have a very big brittle star and 2 good size emerald crabs, blue and red legs hermits, pistol shrimp 3 Mexican (bull dozer ) turbo snails.and some other stuff but i cant thank what they are now.i just got them so i didn't have to clean as much.

[harlequin29]

seems like online retailers are always selling CUC packages that are waaaay overshot.

[aquawolf]

I have always bought the cleaners I was interested in instead of getting a pre-built package. The main reason is the pre-built packages usually have something in them that I do not want in my system.

[three90s&125sump]

My favorite clean up crew members are: not over feeding, a buttload of flow and a hefty skimmer.

Aside from that I will prolly never willingly put another hermit or mythrax crab in my tank again due to their opportunistic feeding behavior. Fire shrimp, pistol shrimp, coral bandeds and cleaner shrimp are much less opportunistic, much cooler looking and will do a better job of cleaning up the left over food than hermits. I will however like to get another pair of boxing crabs(anemones on claws) and porceline crabs (filter feeders). Various snails will do a number on algae along with a tang. I have never (well not as of late) had enough algae to keep a lawn mower alive.

Also, tons of pods, bristle worms and maybe a brittle star, never a serpent star due to them eating small fish.

I guess the more I think about it the more I begin to wonder what encompases a clean up crew.

[jenglish]

Astrea, marguerita onyx nassarius, red and blue leg crabs. I had someone give me some "snails" that turned out to be welks.

[aquawolf]

Originally Posted by jenglish

I had someone give me some "snails" that turned out to be welks.

How very kind of them.

[jonnosteams]

Let see. Blue-leg and white-leg hermits, 2 emeralds, Astrea and nassarius snails, 2 brittles, a CB shrimp those are for the 'stuff'. My favorite would have to be the fighting conch, it does a number on cyno, that's all it seems to eat.

They all do ok, although I believe a CUC is a bit overrated. I'll keep my conch though.

[Xler8n]

What is the differnce between mexican turbo snails and just turbo snails? Also i have heard they are not good becuase 1) They knock stuff over cuz there so big and 2) They cannot right themselves if they get turned over and soon die and foul up the tank.

[jenglish]

Originally Posted by Xler8n

What is the differnce between mexican turbo snails and just turbo snails? Also i have heard they are not good becuase 1) They knock stuff over cuz there so big and 2) They cannot right themselves if they get turned over and soon die and foul up the tank.

I think it is astrea that cannot right themselves.... but I think they can in BB. I avoid turbo because they are dozers and they have big, poorly digested poop that looks worse than the algae IMO