Choosing Cleanup Crew Critters.

[Neoalchemist]

I got a lawnmover blenny, 4 hermit and 1 emerald crab in my 20 gallons. Not sure which type of hermit I got. 1 is getting big and all swapped shells. my birdnest lost polyps in bottom part not sure why or if the hermit is hungry and eat it.( my tank has no fish now so I only do flakes once a week)

A lawnmower blenny is a fish and all of the ones I've had were pigs and yours is probably starving.

 

[Adam Kuhn]

Great post, thank you! Very helpful for someone like me who is getting back into the hobby and having to relearn everything.

 

[Bayareareefer18]

Lol I went to the LFS today and my buddy Zack was working I got a brittle star and my scarlet reef crabs had dissapeared so I said to Zack hey bro grab me three scarlets I stikl have a handful of snails left.

I told him a story about a touchus snail that had a cool barnicle on it dang blue legged hermit ate him moved in then 3 days later abandoned ship lol

I have a nassarius with a barnacle. When he is buried it is sticking out of the sand like a little volcanoe lol

 

[Empress]

I got a lawnmover blenny, 4 hermit and 1 emerald crab in my 20 gallons. Not sure which type of hermit I got. 1 is getting big and all swapped shells. my birdnest lost polyps in bottom part not sure why or if the hermit is hungry and eat it.( my tank has no fish now so I only do flakes once a week)

If you're only feeding flakes you're probably starving your lawnmower. Feed him some nori and some pellets that will sink to the bottom of the tank. Lots of seaweed! Thanks.

 

[DaLilFishie]

i personally have 2 trochus, 5 green hermits and a bunch of snails that hitchhiked in. my hermits have never caused any trouble. the trochus even laid eggs!

 

[Neoalchemist]

i personally have 2 trochus, 5 green hermits and a bunch of snails that hitchhiked in. my hermits have never caused any trouble. the trochus even laid eggs!

Wait until your hermits start tearing food out of your favorite acan's mouth. Or decide to live on that grafted monti.

 

[NoWaiAma]

Wait until your hermits start tearing food out of your favorite acan's mouth. Or decide to live on that grafted monti.

The m’fers

 

[ivanthereefnoob]

You mean the banded trochus? They are one of my favorite and breed successfully in our tanks. It's cool to have a different opinion than mine.

Why want so many snails in a tank . A few is good but won't it become a problem at the end?

 

[FrancineJ]

Question if you have time to answer... I am starting a 32g Coralife BC... I have 2 questions if you have time to answer them:
1- I really like the turbo snails and I have heard people talking about mini ones (not the big guy you have listed) is there such thing and would it be beneficial to add a couple, to which leads to my second question... this is what I have for my start up crew... we won’t have any “mystery ones” because we are using Caribsea LifeRock Shapes instead of true live rock...

2x Trochus snails
2x Necarrius (excuse my spelling) snails
2x cerith snails
2x dwarf cerith snails
2x Tectus snails
And then if there is a mini turbo snail
2x mini turbos

Does that look like a good starting clean up crew? I know a lot about cycling and I expect this one will go pretty quickly based on the equipment and stuff I will be using and we will also be adding bio Spira and using pure ammonia to cycle... (tank is also in a VERY dark room so there will be no windows or really anything but a lamp that’s seldomly on) so I’m not expecting a ton of algae... I know some of these could survive if I dropped a bit of food in I just don’t want them to starve and I have no idea if this is too few... too many... good choices? Lol
Our eventual fish/other invert list is:
2x clownfish
1x royal gramma
1x pink line (streaked) wrasse
1x YWG and tiger shrimp pair
1x Scarlett cleaner shrimp

What do you think of that CUC list as a starter... from friends experiences they were able to add fish in a week or less after using a similar set up to mine and the bio Spira... so we plan on starting with the cleaner shrimp and the goby shrimp combo.... then the royal gramma, then the wrasse, and last the 2 clowns... do you think that will be too many CUC to start with if it’s going to be a short cycle? Or does that seem ok... I will be adding the entire cuc at once and then if in a week the parameters are still good I will do a small water change and start adding the other fish and inverts slowly....
And then if we start noticing algae problems we can add more of the specific cuc member... does that sound ok?
I am about 30 years in fresh and brackish water tanks but this is my first saltwater so I’m unfamiliar with stocking and such lol
Thank you to anyone who may help answer these questions and especially if you could answer Renee... we won’t be adding the fish quickly... it will be weeks and weeks in between.... also should I be adding a couple corals after the cycle is done? When it is cycling? After some fish are in? That part I am also unsure of lol we will only be sticking to a few softies to start with just the basic/easy ones....

 

[Gonzo74]

Does a clean up crew have to have light? I want to add some to my sump but there is no light down there.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

Does a clean up crew have to have light? I want to add some to my sump but there is no light down there.

No they don’t.

 

[norfolkgarden]

Question if you have time to answer... I am starting a 32g Coralife BC... I have 2 questions if you have time to answer them:
1- I really like the turbo snails and I have heard people talking about mini ones (not the big guy you have listed) is there such thing and would it be beneficial to add a couple, to which leads to my second question... this is what I have for my start up crew... we won’t have any “mystery ones” because we are using Caribsea LifeRock Shapes instead of true live rock...

2x Trochus snails
2x Necarrius (excuse my spelling) snails
2x cerith snails
2x dwarf cerith snails
2x Tectus snails
And then if there is a mini turbo snail
2x mini turbos

Does that look like a good starting clean up crew? I know a lot about cycling and I expect this one will go pretty quickly based on the equipment and stuff I will be using and we will also be adding bio Spira and using pure ammonia to cycle... (tank is also in a VERY dark room so there will be no windows or really anything but a lamp that’s seldomly on) so I’m not expecting a ton of algae... I know some of these could survive if I dropped a bit of food in I just don’t want them to starve and I have no idea if this is too few... too many... good choices? Lol
Our eventual fish/other invert list is:
2x clownfish
1x royal gramma
1x pink line (streaked) wrasse
1x YWG and tiger shrimp pair
1x Scarlett cleaner shrimp

What do you think of that CUC list as a starter... from friends experiences they were able to add fish in a week or less after using a similar set up to mine and the bio Spira... so we plan on starting with the cleaner shrimp and the goby shrimp combo.... then the royal gramma, then the wrasse, and last the 2 clowns... do you think that will be too many CUC to start with if it’s going to be a short cycle? Or does that seem ok... I will be adding the entire cuc at once and then if in a week the parameters are still good I will do a small water change and start adding the other fish and inverts slowly....
And then if we start noticing algae problems we can add more of the specific cuc member... does that sound ok?
I am about 30 years in fresh and brackish water tanks but this is my first saltwater so I’m unfamiliar with stocking and such lol
Thank you to anyone who may help answer these questions and especially if you could answer Renee... we won’t be adding the fish quickly... it will be weeks and weeks in between.... also should I be adding a couple corals after the cycle is done? When it is cycling? After some fish are in? That part I am also unsure of lol we will only be sticking to a few softies to start with just the basic/easy ones....

That is plenty snails. Maybe skip the turbos.

We only have 4 turbos and 4 trochus in a 75 gallon.

The other snails you mentioned are so small that all of them together counts as one Turbo.
[emoji846]

Keep in mind the snails just recycle it and make it look a little better most of the time.

You need to export the phosphate and nitrate using cheato or an ATS or GFO if you have too much.

Not sure if you plan on quarantining your fish and snails.

 

[nbd13]

Setting up a 150 gallon SPS bare bottom tank and have been out of the game for 10 years.

Where does everyone get cleanup crew packages now a days?

What number of snails would you recommend and type?

What’s this I see about 40 day quarantine for cleanup crews?

Thanks,

Nick

 

[Gonzo74]

Setting up a 150 gallon SPS bare bottom tank and have been out of the game for 10 years.

Where does everyone get cleanup crew packages now a days?

What number of snails would you recommend and type?

What’s this I see about 40 day quarantine for cleanup crews?

Thanks,

Nick

Nick,

Some places will sell you a CUC depending on the size of your tank. With that said, it also depends on how much nutrients your tank needs exported? If you have one fish it will be different than if you have 10. I think that places like the below have options for tank size but be careful not to get too many when starting out or half may die off.

https://pacificeastaquaculture.com/collections/invert-kits

As for 40 day quarantine for inverts, I don’t quarantine any inverts before adding them. You may hear different from others. My lifestyle just does it allow me the time to deal with that. I quarantine fish if they get parasites but I don’t pre-quarantine. I just treat as things happen.

To each his own....

Gonzo

 

[nbd13]

Hi,

Any suggestions on number of cleanup crew critters for a 150 sps tank with a heavy fish population?

Thanks

 

[OutsideBrian]

Is there a hermit Id page?

 

[Jon Fishman]

I have had a big Margarita in my tank for months

 

[Doel]

I recommend a fighting conch as a sea cucumber

 

[ReeferReefer]

To add to the list, I've had good results with both my Halloween Hermit Crabs (Ciliopagurus strigatus - aka "striped" or "orange leg" hermit crab), though I have, admittedly, a relatively new tank. Still; I had one recover a lost zoa colony without eating it, so that's a good sign...

One of my favorite inverts. Not sure how good of job they do at cleaning but they are awesome anyways.

 

[CasaReefer]

Just wanted to say Thank You for sharing this.. For us Noobs it was very helpful..