CUC recommendation - Reefcleaners

[pdiehm]

love reefcleaners. they have no fish, so you don't need to worry about any fish diseases. AlgaeBarn is another that keeps their snails in fallow systems (according to a rep I spoke to).

you don't *need* hermits. Not only will hermits pick off snails, they will pick at corals as well.

 

[redpine42]

love reefcleaners. they have no fish, so you don't need to worry about any fish diseases. AlgaeBarn is another that keeps their snails in fallow systems (according to a rep I spoke to).

you don't *need* hermits. Not only will hermits pick off snails, they will pick at corals as well.

I have a number of hermits. They are much more entertaining than the snails. As for corals they only pick at the algae, although the halloween crab sometimes bulldozes right over them. The biggest problem I have is my CUC is maybe 70 snails and hermits. The snails are breeding I have many new ceriths, and the algae in the DT is decreasing. Once my Chaeto is fully functioning, I doubt I'll have enough algae to feed them. I'll end up giving the snails back to the LFS and keep the hermits.

 

[pdiehm]

that's also my concern. once I get really going and established, the food will be minimal. for my 120, I'm thinking something very small, like 25 ceriths, 20 nerites and 15 Trochus snails.

 

[Averhoeven]

Just got a decent sized order from them. So far it all looks good

 

[fermentedhiker]

FWIW none of those will eat GHA. I do like reefcleaners though and have ordered from them several times. The amount of nassarius should depend on how heavily you feed since they don't eat algae and just scavenge for uneaten food and dead animals. I generally go with 15-25% of what they recommend and then slowly add more if I feel like the tank can support them.

On hermits Scarlets are the safest and only seem to kill a snail if they really need a bigger shell. I found blue legs to be straight up snail assassins especially of ones with cerith type shells. Trochus always did the best at avoiding the hermits. They do this fast spin jerk move to get free.