Adequate CUC??

[cody2cannon]

So I have,
1 emerald crab
2 hermit crabs
2 turbo snails

Is this enough for a 20 gallon tank?

 

[jason_mazzy]

1 emerald crab too many...................... lol. I dont care for them.

I would do a general snail mix, no more crabs.

 

[cody2cannon]

I love my emerald, sticks to the shadows but I catch him out at night occasionally.

 

[cody2cannon]

Have you owned any nassarius snails?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Make sure you feed the emerald.
My wife hates the Nass snails good met eaters.
You want ceriths and astria too.

 

[elfda]

I love nassarius snails. [emoji178]

 

[cody2cannon]

Make sure you feed the emerald.

What should I feed the emerald?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Small meats and algaes. Algae tabs are good.
Emeralds As far as I can tell are a 50/50 of starving or going rogue or being a great addition. Mine have never damaged anything but they have all starved sadly despite my efforts. And I feed and mostly the mrs feed really heavy at times.

 

[cody2cannon]

Small meats.... raw shrimp?

 

[cody2cannon]

I should rinse first correct?

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Small meats.... raw shrimp?

What ever your feeding the tank kinda. LRS reef frenzy and stuff like that are fine. They are supposed to be omnivores as far as I know.
I've had emeralds so shy we never saw them. We've had a couple that came out to be fed too.

 

[taintstick]

I enjoy a nice bunch of clean up crews in my 55gallon. I have about 15-20 hermits (blue legged and red legged) about 10 MEXICAN turbos, 5 astria, and maybe 10 nassarius, 1 cleaner shrimp. My tank does not have a spot of algae with black deep sand bed. I only see nassarius' when I feed the tank. Creepy little jerks lol
Emerald crab, well I have only gotten in the past to take care of a bubble algae issue that came with a new piece. He did eat snails from time to time which prompted me to trade him in since he did what I needed haha

 

[cody2cannon]

I feeding small pellets for my clown but only twice a day. I have seen my hermits eating the amphipods. And the emerald picks at the rocks all day. I haven't seen my nassarius snail in 3 weeks.... and the 2 turbos are on the glass all day. I have some algae on the glass.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yea I think it's really calculated guessing trying to maintain a balance.
The only crab I've had go rogue was a small hermit. Killed one fish tried to eat another.

 

[cody2cannon]

I want to add snails but I also don't want anything to starve or become food for the other inverts. Lol they are awesome, might be my favorite part of the tank. I love my clown too but the inverts are awesome!

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Yea same here. Personally I think it's wise to watch the tank and add accordingly.
In my larger tank a lot of the CUC is actually made up of Hitchikers.
If you run across some stomatellas jump on them. Pods are CUC too.

I got tiny collonistas in my tank and the population exploded. Same with the stigmas at the same time
I wound up losing the larger sanails I had purchased as they were out competed by the numbers of smaller snails.
And naturally shortly thereafter both their population numbers dropped as well as they had eaten themselves out of a job.

 

[taintstick]

I want to add snails but I also don't want anything to starve or become food for the other inverts. Lol they are awesome, might be my favorite part of the tank. I love my clown too but the inverts are awesome!

What do you feed coral?
It's not unusual to not see the nassarius, especially if you only have 3. I would say feed the tank a generous amount of frozen food. They will smell the food and burst out of the sand. If you only feed pellets then not enough time for the smell to get around to them. Also using frozen food whatever is caught in rock or falls to the sand, well that's how the CUC (haha) feed.

 

[cody2cannon]

I don't feed coral, only have a hammer frag and toadstool mushroom all photosynthetic

 

[taintstick]

The hammer will definitely love a little spot feeding. I feed my 4 euphyllia (I think I spelled it right) every other day. Toadstool will just filter through the water.

 

[cody2cannon]

Well I'm thinking of picking up some raw shrimp I've read the hammer, emerald, hermits, and the nass will enjoy just rinse and dice. Not to mention the amphipods too lol soon as a pellet hit the sand they cover it, then my hermits devour them... love it!