The MUST HAVE workers in your tank that really earn their keep!

Are you housing specific fish & inverts for the sole purpose of "working" in your tank?

  • Yes

    Votes: 731 90.4%
  • No

    Votes: 68 8.4%
  • Was unaware of working fish and inverts

    Votes: 10 1.2%

  • Total voters
    809

stanleo

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I voted no. Everyone has their job to do but I wouldn't get anything for the sole purpose of doing a job. I have a tang because I like tangs, not because they eat algae. Same goes for the goby, the snails, the hermits, the emerald crab. All of them. I think especially if you lead new people to this hobby to believe that getting something to handle something in a tank can lead to an animal that might not fair too well. Like getting a sand sifting goby to keep the sand clean. Well I hope they are also told that unless the sand is deep enough and the tank is mature enough, that goby can eat through the microbes in the sand pretty quickly and once he does, he can starve unless he is fed multiple times a day. Same with harliquin shrimp. They will take care of your asterina starfish but be prepaired to provide for their needs after the starfish are gone. Or a sea hare and the list could go on. I think we should get only those animals that we really like to have in our tank and consider the "job they do" as just an added bonus.
 

gcrawford

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Would love to.....any recommendations for green hair algae eaters in a nano?
 

tripdad

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20190817_171825.jpg

This guy is my algae eating champ. I also have a tuxedo urchin to get into smaller spots.
 

tgionet

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If possible I’ll include tangs, foxface, copperband butterfly, and wrasse. As for inverts I’m very fond of Mespilia urchins (I have 4 in my tank) and Trochus snails. Cleaner shrimp and wrasse are good in my book as well.
 

Kernowzx2

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Snails, peppermint shrimp, emerald and Sally Lightfoot crabs, bristleworms, pods, tubeworms, featherdusters, Medusa and spaghetti worms, and not forgetting the brittlestars
all make up the clean up crew. They work and play hard (hence the baby peppermints popping up!)
 

Salty Lemon

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Would love to.....any recommendations for green hair algae eaters in a nano?
Blennies and lots of snails help take care of mine. When I start growing gha on my powerhead connectors/cords, I'll grab one or two snails, set them on it them, and it is gone in that area within 24 hours. But mine isn't a nano -- I have other, larger fish helping out as well. But my blenny is busy picking at the rocks.
 

miyags

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Hardest working snails I ever had were stomatella snails.My rock work was never cleaner. Bought a baby harlequin tusk fish and he ate them all.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 73 37.6%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 66 34.0%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 12.9%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 28 14.4%
  • Other.

    Votes: 2 1.0%
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