MVP: Tell us about your cleanup crew! Who's on the team and who's the MVP?

[Kfactor]

Turbos my urchin is lazy lol

 

[Chrisreefer]

I have two conches two recently died have had them for 4 ish years..

but prob 20 plus bumble bee snails and
5 Scarlett crabs prob 10 nassarius snails blood fire shrimp Mexican turbos astreas ninja star snails blue legged crabs so im missing some but bumble bees snails are the best!!

 

[MightyMO]

My sea hare has been my LeBron james... But I'm hoping it evolves into a jordan(sea hare)/pippen(bergia nudibranchs)

 

[Smokeshow]

In my 75g I have 3 turbo snails, cleaner shrimp, 2 emerald crabs, lawnmower blenny and I have 2 black mollies that help clean up algea in the dt. The crabs are amazing but are mean

 

[reefbeard]

The MVP award has to go to my Tiger Sand Conch. There are fish and other snails that help with the house keeping but this guy is the work horse. He will climb rocks and glass to get to the good stuff and the sand is always clean.

 

[clhardy5]

I have a variety of CUC...

5 Asterinas
2 Turbo snails
1 Conch
5 assorted hermits....
Hands down....my MVP is my Diamond Goby. He is a workhorse and spends all day turning over the sand bed.....every ....inch...of the tank.

 

[Charlie C]

Turbo snails, fighting conch is second because he’s lazy - figured out where all the waste settles and just stays there. When I change the flow he starts moving again.

 

[kindafun]

I have had an assortment of snails: Nerite, Cerith, and Nassarius as I have been going through the ugly stage of startup with algae. I had a real mess and it was getting worse.

Then I got some Trochus snails from another vendor last week and they have been incredible! Algae eating bots. They have chewed through it and left the rock clean.

 

[xxkenny90xx]

My sand sifting cucumber is definitely my mvp

 

[Doglips56]

A cleanup crew (CUC TEAM) is one of the most important parts of our reef tank ecosystem! They consist of many different types of inverts and even fish and they take care of unwanted algae, uneaten foods and other dead critters. We house many of the same members of the CUC Team but I would still like to know what critters are on your starting team!

1. List all the members of your clean up crew team including inverts and fish!

large purple pincushion urchin
small blue tuxedo urchin
2 conch snails
4-5 blue leg hermit crabs
Purple claw reef lobster
1 fire shrimp
2 peppermint shrimp
5 Mexican turbo snails
Bumblebee snails breed like crazy, idk how many now
5 Black snails
multiple astrea snails
Stomatella snails also breed like crazy, probably have hundreds
Bristle worms
A few asterina stars

2. Who's your MVP cleanup crew team member?

It’s really hard to choose one because I think they all work together but I’m going to say probably the yucky stomatellas. They’re ugly, they look like slits but they are EVERYWHERE.

-The peppermint Shrimp won’t touch my aptasia
-The bumblebee snails are doing nothing about the vermited snails
I don’t see a lot of algae and maybe it’s directly related to the urchins but I’m tired of them knocking things over and carrying things around
The reef lobster is a total recluse, not sure how much it contributes

Interesting tidbit - I still have all of my original cleanup crew plus their offspring

Only t

 

[WallyB]

MY MVP cleanup crew member is "My Siphon hose", and 2nd Place goes to the "Portable Power Head", 3rd place is the "Plastic Bristle Brush".

The rest of the little guys do their work in between sessions.

 

[DxMarinefish]

Yes, My Conomurex luhuanus aka "strawberry conch" and my Holothuria thomasi aka "tiger tail cucumber".

These are my MVP CUC, especially the cucumber. I have never had to stir the sand bed.

the other little helpers also do a grand job.

 

[Reefvision]

I have a variety of CUC...

5 Asterinas
2 Turbo snails
1 Conch
5 assorted hermits....
Hands down....my MVP is my Diamond Goby. He is a workhorse and spends all day turning over the sand bed.....every ....inch...of the tank.

Agreed with Diamond goby for sand only mine was chased ro death by my purple dottyback. Now sand is nowhere as clean

 

[Turkey head]

Has to be the tuxedo urchin. That thing is non stop cleaning. I have some snails but no hermit crabs. I got tired of replacing snails as they killed them. They must like those shells better than the ones I provided for them.

 

[RobW]

Hmm.... hard to pick a superstar. If I had to right now, I would say one of my blood shrimp. Only because he literally jumps on my fish as they swim passed and rides them around the tank like its a rodeo. All the members of the cleanup crew have a job and they seem to do it quite well. Probably a bit over kill in a 30 long nuvo. . At the moment, I have the following.

2 blood red shrimp
2 cleaner shrimp
1 pincushion urchin
24 blue legged hermit crabs
10 red legged hermit crabs
10 vibex nassarius snails
10 margarita snails
2 emerald crabs
6 red banded trochus snails

 

[Sharkbait19]

Not really a cleanup crew, but my pistol shrimp is the only one I can count on to pull the decaying corals and foods out of the rocks and crevices, so he's kind of an MVP.

 

[Jarry]

Conomurex luhuanus - incredible what they can do, just 2 in 80 gallon, one might be enough. Then Trochus histrio as a great algae eaters.

 

[Fish man]

For me it's a Mexican Turbo. I used to have a bunch of Zebra hermits that died off over the years. I never see them anymore at lfs. What happened to them. They were great.

 

[deztheclownfish]

Tagging along and thanks for the advice. After being away from the hobby for many years and now setting up a nano tank, where is the favorite online place to purchase the cleanup crew?

I bought mine from saltwaterfish.com it was the everything pack it included hermit crabs a Duncan coral a mandarin snails, and a conch and a clam. I guess that's why its called the everything pack

 

[fluked]

Inverts:
5/6x yellow leg hermit crabs, they would be tied for MVP.
2x trochus snails. Also tied for mvp.
3x turbo snails. Im sure they do something, but they were tiny when added, so mostly just watching them grow up.
2x random hitchhiker snails, seem like they might be little turbos, also cool watching them get bigger.
Stomatella snails, ive seen at least 2, but no clue how many there are as they hitchiked their way in.
Misc: bristle worms, micro brittle stars etc, I'm sure they do something as i see them occassionally still alive.

Fish:
Green coris wrasse, has decided it loves to create sandstorms looking for food in the last 2 weeks, so half of the sand bed is currently nice and white due to his efforts.