TOP 3 Cleanup Crew Critters & when's the last time you got a new crew?

When is the last time you purchased cleanup crew critters?

  • Past few days

    Votes: 81 12.5%
  • Past few weeks

    Votes: 168 25.9%
  • Past few months

    Votes: 204 31.5%
  • Over a half a year

    Votes: 92 14.2%
  • Over a year ago

    Votes: 98 15.1%
  • Other (please explain)

    Votes: 5 0.8%

  • Total voters
    648

shakacuz

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top 3 for me would be
trochus
cerith
court jester goby

honorable mention would be tiger conch or fighting conch because both of mine are lazyyyyyyyy
 
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ying yang

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Top 3 cuc : in my tank
1: tuxedo urchins
2: tiger conch but some call it a strawberry lipped conch,i would just say conch.works cleaning bottom few inches of glass and constantly cleaning sand or little bits of rock it can reach with its trunk.
3: 3rd spot tie between nassarious snail and trochus snails,both at night time constantly working,the nassarious snails in /on and under sandbed and trochus snails on the glass and rocks ( both only come out at night now) guessing one of my fishes annoys/ targets them or enough food in tank now to just come out at night idk

Last time i bought cuc :
Was just over a month ago,my method on my now nearly 8 month old tank is just add a hanfull of cuc members when current cuc cannot control algae on rocks etc and im way overdue adding more.

In my 80 g dt with 9 small- medium fish and ....
6 nassarious snails.
6 trochus snails.
2 conchs.
3 red legged scarlet hermits
14 mixed was meant to be mini hermits and lfs told me wouldnt grow much more but least 50% have quadrupled in size and 2 of them grown 6 x lol.
2 tuxedo urchins.
Also got 2 cleaner shrimp but they mainly just steal food from corals when feed tank lol.
Got a ywg and pistol shrimp and as a previous poster said the shrimp keeps sandbed immaculate which is about 50% of my tank.

Hopefully in next week can go lfs and get another 6- 10 hermits.plus 6 blue legged .
6 trochus snails.
6 nassarious snails.
I choose to only buy snails that can flip themselves over if need be so will have to reseaech and recap information about cerith and other snails to see if they can right themselves.
.also think should mention coral beauty/tail spot blennie and bi colour blennie geaze the rocks and glass often so they part of cuc imo
 

Catnip885

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My top three in my nano are my astrea snails, nassarius snails, and reef hermits. They have all done such a great job barely had any algae issues when I set up and the nassarius keep my sanded worked up nicely.
I did just buy a scarlet reef hermit Saturday he was cute and his shell was just corraline algae so it was a win win
 

SteveMM62Reef

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I second the Nassarius, other than their Syphons sticking up, the only time I see them is when I feed my Anemone. They come out to cleanup the uneaten Silversides. Also if you don’t catch a dead critter, they will clean that up before it damages your f
tank. I have Four in my 65 gallon, which seems like the right number, for that size of tank, with a deep sand bed.
 

Rick's Reviews

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Trochus snails, hermit crabs and black cucumbers. All three are virtually indestructible.
Clownfish are doing great and cleaner shrimp also, as for cleaner pack, I often see one big snail, 3-2 hermit crabs, did not receive blue legged but 8 very tiny red hermits with small black shell, I see 2 at the most, after acclamation they all went to ground and buried, other than above.... Not seen since
 

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mike89t

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I prefer snails and avoid crabs. I tend to prefer a mix of the following:

#1 Trochus snails
#2 Cerith snails
#3 Nerite Snails


I will also add Nassarius snails to clean up leftover food on the sand bed. A small conch will also be deployed to keep the sand clean.
 

bnord

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Agree that in a nano-ish sized tank with little coral on the bed that a pistol - guy pair is the best way to turn over and keep the bed spotless and they are a blast to watch

Question:, I use all the above - and heavy on the Emerald and Red Coral crabs, but two of my three tanks have a low level but persistent short filamentous/turf algae in the overhangs that everyone nibbles at (Purple and yellow tang, scrawled rabbit, starry blenny, tuxedos, pencil, hermits). Have a dense cheato mass that I turn over regularly and Nitrates and phosphates are checked, and low. Understand it is likely the chaeto and algae keeping it low.

AWC on the 180.

the 15 with the Pistol has decorative macro as another nutrient sink

Can learn to live with it, guests don't see it, I do, and my mentor does too (smile)

any suggestions?
 

Sesty22

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Hands down the Small conches from ReefCleaners.

I've ordered more cuc in the last few months than I thought I would, and the only ones worth their weight are the small ( strawberry I think ) conches .. they go at it non stop 24/7, even climb the rocks lol. I don't even have to worry about below the sand line any more. Puts every other snail I have to shame.
 

tfeeken

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1. Trochus snails
2. Margarita snails
3. Cerith snails
4. Nassarious snails

In my 60 I started with about 6 Trochus, 6 Margarita, 5 Nassarious and 10 Cerith snails. Since then everything has survived with the exception of the Nassarious. Pretty sure there's only a couple left so I should add a few more for the meaty stuff that falls in the sand bed. I've also been extremely lucky and my Trochus have been reproducing in the tank. My tank is covered in babies all the time. They really help clean the nooks and cranies. I've also seemed to somehow picked up what I believe are baby turbo snails. Even dipping everything they must have survived somehow.
 

spacedcowboy

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I've never had much luck with conches. They tend to wander around for a while doing their thing, and then bury themselves in the sand for days (sometimes weeks). Then they'll surface, you'll see them moving around again for a while, and then it's back into the sand.

For the 5% of the time they're actually doing anything in the tank, they're great. For the rest of the time, it's just "oh, he's still there, somewhere"...

I prefer snails and hermits, though I did get one set of hermit-crabs (I went for the "assorted") from reef cleaners that had some crabs grow to ~2-3" and basically start eating the rest of the CUC. They exited stage-left (well down to the sump) pretty quickly once I realized what had happened. I'm careful to only get specific hermits I know won't grow that large these days... That's not to say RC did anything wrong - I've used them since and continue to do so, but it wasn't a great experience.
 

gaki

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Not sure if this counts, but about a year ago I got a few frags with a bunch of amphipods on them, and I left them alone and the population exploded. They do a good job picking up any uneaten food.

Also after that I've got some blue leg hermit crabs and they're fun but not particularly useful (as far as I can tell).

Last but maybe most important is my army of tiny feather dusters that I'm convinced keep my water crystal clear --> I haven't done a water change in about a year but the water has never gotten cloudy and everything is thriving :)
 

CMMorgan

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Just got 4 Fighting Conchs from Dr. Reef's at the end of last week. It took several days for them to get rolling but holy wow. They are like a diatom eating army. I need to get more.
The Tangs (Yellow and Hippo) are always picking at stuff - cyano, diatoms, they are going to get fat.
Beyond that, the Florida ceriths are just beasts ... they remind me of bats. When the lights dim, they come out by the dozens to get to work.
Halloween Bats GIF
 

jfoahs04

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They are my go to as well...but it took 4 days to Vermont once....that was too long.

My top three would be trochus, mexican turbos, and urchins for algae on rocks.

I bought snails last year I think around this time and wasn't planning on adding more this fall.

Out of curiosity, is there an LFS you use in VT? My fiancee is from the Mad River Valley and her recently retired father fell in love with our tank and wants to start one up. But he's not at all computer savvy (won't be ordering online) and I'm not sure what the options are for someone in that area.

Love Brandon, by the way. We go out of the way for Red Clover pretty regularly.
 

mistb2002

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I have tried to renew my cleanup crew twice in the past month but due to shipping delays, had several DOA. Normally reefcleaners is 2 day shipping to my address but the recent orders have been 3 days(which according to their website, should be fine) but I have been experiencing significant loss. Guess I will wait until shipping improves or try a different vendor or LFS.
This almost happened to me. I had to drive and pick up my cuc from the airport.
 

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: 64 36.8%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 59 33.9%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 14.4%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 26 14.9%
  • Other.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
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