Weekly Discussion Thread - Clean-up Crews

[ScruffyRubicon]

There is always a lot of talk about clean-up crews. When do you add them, what types, how many?

Some people like crabs and other avoid them at all costs.

As far as snails, there are endless possibilities. All of them have a different job.

Let's here what you all have to say. Good and bad of each type.

[tlgreve]

I like Tonga Nassarius snails. They live in your sand and come out to eat meaty leftovers that would otherwise decompose in your tank. Since they live in the sand, they also stir things up a bit. I've noticed in my experience that they live longer than the smaller nassarius snails, I've had one for about 3 years! (of course there may be someone in my tank that likes the smaller ones) Unfortunatly, they cost a bit more than the smaller ones.

[Neuticle]

I have expirimented with many local species, I enjoy scouting for new animals to try in my tank. Here are a few of my more productive observations.

Striped hermits are awesome, from my experience their bad rap is totally unfounded. I have hermits that are huge by the standards here and are totally benign to my system. I won't try a 4" monster hermit though

Olive Nerites won't eat hair algae, they will "scalp" it off of things while trying to eat other stuff at the base of the algae. Olive Nerites can survive in an enormous range of water conditions.

Auger snails are indestructable, I put about 30-40 of them in a week old tank with new sand, I still have them three months later.

Lettered Olives only seem to eat Periwinkle snails and chunks of fish food for me, so not really cleaners, but cool nonetheless.

Fiddlercrabs will thrive in a reef tank, they are a bit shy but good eaters. I always try to catch the males with the huge pincher so I can watch them quarrel with each other in my tank.

[ScruffyRubicon]

The biggest problem I have had with the nerites is the eggs they lay on the glass. Since they are a harder shelled egg, they take a bit more work to clean off.

I kept about 20 of the nerites in the 125g.

The Mexican Turbos were a good glass cleaning snail but are big and will knock everything over in their path. About 10 to 15 per 100g.

Astreas I keep about 10 per 20 gallons. Good for cleaning up glass and rocks of surface algae.

Love the nassarius snail, large and small, for cleaning up the sand. I keep about 10 per 4 sq. ft. of sand surface.

Stomatellas are great but I have never seen them for sale anyplace. Always just get them off incoming rock and corals. They multiply readily in most tanks.

[Jnicho]

Just say no to sand sifting stars. I do know some folks with very large tanks that have kept them successfully. They do a great job but almost always starve in the long run. I like a few brittle or serpent stars to scavenge in my tanks.

As for snails all I keep are nassarius and astrea. There are lots of cooler water snails being marketed these days that slowly cook in a typical reef tank. Other than having to occasionally flip an astrea snail back over, I find them to eat all kinds of micro algae.

Crabs...a heated topic for some. I personally keep some of the small blue hermits. I've never seen them pick on anything that was not sick or weak already. I also keep a few emerald crabs. Again I've seen them pick at corals but only when they where already on the way out.

Cukes...I love my tiger tails. I know some folks swear they will nuke your tank. In a larger tank with out predatory fish I find the risk to be extremely low. That said I don't keep any exotic cukes only the ugly Holothuria variety. But hey, anything that eats dirty sand and poops clean sand is A-OK in my book.

Shrimp...Not typically considered CUC...but I find them to be great scavengers too. I don't like peppermints as I've seen them pick on nems and LPS corals. Many types of shrimp tend to hide. I personally like the run of the mill skunk cleaners. They are less timid and have funny "personalities"

Lastly the king of hair algae eaters...the sea hare...probably one of Gods ugliest creatures...we had one for a while that my kids named Jaba (aka Jaba the hut from star wars). These guys will clean up a tank with an algae problem like no bodies business. They need to be rotated to other tanks to keep them from starving however. Once the tank is clean they will quickly starve. If you have multiple tanks you can rotate them around...otherwise best to find them a new home, and there is always someone in your local reef community in need of algae removal services.

My last comment on CUC's, is less is more. I'm a firm believer that almost all the "online" sellers of CUC's put way too many animals in their "packages". In my 125, my CUC is probably 1/5 of what most online packages recommend. If you follow good husbandry practices a small CUC should easily be able to keep up.

OK, there is some food for thought to get the discussion rolling. Have at it!

[Neuticle]

Originally Posted by Jnicho

My last comment on CUC's, is less is more. I'm a firm believer that almost all the "online" sellers of CUC's put way too many animals in their "packages". In my 125, my CUC is probably 1/5 of what most online packages recommend. If you follow good husbandry practices a small CUC should easily be able to keep up.

Amen to that, even if a tank can support 100 hermits and 100 snails, adding them at the same time would be an enormous shock to the system. Turning a ton of algae into a ton of snail poop is not a good thing either .

I feel for the mailorder only people in rural areas, it must suck not to be able to fine tune your crew by adding a few animals here and there.

[Jnicho]

Originally Posted by Neuticle

Amen to that, even if a tank can support 100 hermits and 100 snails, adding them at the same time would be an enormous shock to the system. Turning a ton of algae into a ton of snail poop is not a good thing either.

I feel for the mailorder only people in rural areas, it must suck not to be able to fine tune your crew by adding a few animals here and there.

I think a lot of people (even those not in rural areas) mail order a CUC package. At least around here it can be hard to find all the various critters in stock. I see so many "newish" tanks with huge CUC's, and half of them end up dieing. Always better to start out small and add a few more if you need them.

I have to agree on the turbos...bulldozers, I don't even keep them anymore...to clumsy.

And a side note on hermits. I did a behavior study on hermits years ago when I was in school. They are quite cannibalistic if too cramped...and also need to have plenty of empty shells as they like to change houses quite frequently.

[YLChik]

I'll add my 2 cents....

crabs - I like the scarlet crabs - slower a bit more peaceful and tend to keep their shells longer. ( read don't seem to be as big of assassins) but over all I am not a fan of crabs, I have had them take out fish. Some of them look super cool and fun to watch but I am more for snails at this point.

I like astrenas, cerith,and we have margarita snails around here- I have heard they are warmer water, but have had some in my tank ( I keep it at 78) for over a year now....
and I too love the tonga nassarius in a tank with sand - like night of the living dead.

I also agree on the turbos - just oo big and clumsy!

but my won't go without critter is my tuxedo urchin - great at cleaning off the rocks!!!!

I also like a smaller serpent star to clean up meaty bits in a tank.

and shrimp,LOVE THEM as long as they don't have predators in the tank - I have a flame hawk in my 95 right now, so no shrimpy for me.


When to add-
after your cycle when food is availble for them ( at least shrimp and crabs)

[Antdizzle]

The turbos are great cleaners, I had a massive HA problem in my 55 and I added 5 of them and algae wasnt a problem 3 days later ! just make sure if you free stack that ur good and tight cause they will knock things over.
will never do emaralds again... feel they are coral eaters... Nassirus snails are great

[dbjohnso]

I have several brittle stars, 3 or 4 emerald crabs and about 30 astrea's.
the astreas arent near as much a pain in a b.b. tank they flip themselves over.

[crvz]

Originally Posted by dbjohnso

the astreas arent near as much a pain in a b.b. tank they flip themselves over.

I have found the same, which is nice. I've never had to flip a snail since I lost the sand.

[alk907]

I am a big fan of the mexican turbo snails, and nassarius *sp * snails. They help alot with algae issues for me.

[wolfe4372]

i have :

14 blue legged hermits
1 scarlet hermit
5 zebra hermits
3 turbo snails
9 bumble bee snails
2 spirata babylonia
1 cowrie
1 pincushion urchin
3 brittle stars (they are very tiny)

and before you guys say "wait doesnt she have a 14g tank? isnt that a bit much?"
i have natural sunlight that hits my tank in the morning. so i end up with a mess if i dont have a large crew.

[jph]

FWIW... my 24G barebottom CUC;

a few astrea snails
a few cerith snails
a few nassarius snails (they don't seem to miss the sandbed)
two small turbo snails (to keep the annoying red/purple filamentous algae under control)
a couple of scarlet and blue leg hermits
two emerald crabs (added recently as i was starting to see tiny bubble algae show it's ugly heads)

i've been seeing quite a few small limpets recently. it started as one or two, but now i can find quite a few if i care to look for them.

as my tank nutrients get lower and lower, i think some of the snails may be very hungry. i'll randomly loose one, and the hermits have a party that day i've never seen the hermits actively hunt for the snails.


J.

[jenglish]

I run 5 astreas, 10 nerites, 10 margarita, 3 turbos, 10 onyx nassarius, 10 blu leg hermits, 10 red leg hermit in a 30. I know its way too much but it came as a package. The 3 turbos are like golfball sized and are vacationing in a spare tank until I do some epoxying and superglueing. Those things are dozers. I also have a brittle star if that counts as cleanup as well as various pods.