What is the best clean up crew?

[CyberGuy]

There are so many types of snails. Which is the best type of snails for clean up crew?

Is getting hermit crab good or should avoid due to them destroying snails for the shells?

 

[Biokabe]

Best for what purpose?

I can only speak for myself, but I don't think there's a single "best" species. All snails do something different and fill a different niche, so I keep a robust selection of different species to tick as many boxes as possible. Nassarius, Nerite, Trochus, Astrea, Cerith, Margarite, Turbo, Conch - if it doesn't get too big for my tank, I use them.

With regards to hermits, I use them very sparingly. They're great for cleaning up leftovers, but too many of them and they'll start going after anything that you feed your corals as well. Additionally, they'll attack snails when they get hungry. Scarlet and blue-legged hermits seem to be the least destructive.

 

[Gareth elliott]

My favorite inverts for survival rates, utility, joy of watching, and reef safeness.

Snails: Turban Snails, nassarius and ceriths.
ime turbo snails eat more algae but have lower long term survival rates and more sensitive to acclimation.

Hermits: blue legs and scarlets, you will lose some snails on occasion even with proper feeding and keeping extra shells.

Crabs: personally the only crab i will keep are pom pom crabs. If i ever saw local acropora crabs i maybe tempted to test them in a frag tank. But i dont really trust crabs, pom poms have no available claws to eat a coral or fish.

echinoderms: tiger cucumbers and bristle stars. Other stars are not meant for 99% of tanks. Urchins i dont have a need for i actually like my back wall covered in coraline.

shrimp: yellow claw coral banded shrimp if want a single shrimp. If want multiples i like sexy shrimp, in a tank with no shrimp eaters. Cant say either clean my tank, but shrimp are incredibly fun to watch.

not a list of the best, but my preferred inverts. As i think everyone will have a different definition and experience with what they have cared for.

 

[CyberGuy]

Thanks for the input. I am in the process of getting CUC.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I like trochus snails a lot. I steer clear of hermits because they can go rogue

 

[Bret Brinkmann]

Hermits will kill the snails eventually. If you value snails, stay away from all crabs.

Ceriths come in a few varieties, dwarf, Caribbean, Florida, and a few others. They go all over and are particularly good for cleaning sand as are fighting and tiger conchs. My sand is always cyanobacteria and algae free thanks to my ceriths.

Astra and turbos are more sensitive to Mg levels but all snails are susceptible to Mg toxicity. Keep Mg no higher than1400ppm to maintain a healthy buffer from it. My snails dropped like flies when my Mg reached 1500+ppm. They just sat there looking drunk and slept until they starved to death. Higher levels of Mg act as a sedative to which they can't ever escape (because it's in the water) and they OD.

But astreas and turbos are good for cleaning glass and rocks. My nerites stick to the glass mainly and they come in a wide variety of colors including red, yellow, blue, white, grey, and tan.

Margarita snails are a cold water species and should be avoided because they live a very short life in our warmer tanks.

Trochus are nice because they are essentially an astrea that can flip themselves right side up (astreas can't) and are not as sensitive to Mg levels. Trochus, ceriths, and nerites will breed in your tank.

I also have gold ring cowries, aka money cowries, that are doing well. They are predominantly nocturnal and really mow down hair algae. They are super cool looking at night and have pretty shiny shells to see during the day. Because their mantle covers the entire shell when they forage at night, it never gets algae growth on it and is always pretty.

Most snails are more active during lights out, especially ceriths. But the trochus don't seem to keep any regular hours from what I noticed.

 

[S2G]

Trochus, cerith, & nassaurus

 

[ReefingFamily]

I have had good success with pin cushion urchins

 

[sp1187]

snails listed above. my personal fav are strawberry conchs.
tiny hermits, which when they get bigger I give them away to local reefers.
I'm also a believer in spaghetti and bristle worms.

 

[Triple.T]

I love Trochus snails. They're my best workers I have about 10 small sized!! I keep quite a few different species of hermits. By far neon orange leg do the most rock cleaning in small crevices in my system. Secondly I keep an XXL blue knuckle and he is great at cleaning up scraps he's approximately 3.75" . I keep a Halloween hermit he tends to agitate new mates then leaves them alone, doesn't do much for cleaning but looks awesome.

3 normal crabs ( Anemone crab, emerald crab, blue porcelain crab ) . I notice the emerald all over the rockwork picking stuff off 24/7 . Blue porcelain is a filter feeder so he tends to stay tucked in slightly in moderate flow loving life! Anemone crab just looks cool.

 

[Nanaue]

I've got a managery of inverts on my cleaner crew. By far the most come in the form of turbos where I started with two, they bred, and now I have about 100 marble-sized baby snails running about. They do a great job mowing over the glass and rocks in droves.
Other than them, I have some Astreas, two tiger coweries, one conch, a handful of hermits (all blue-legs), one Halloween hermit for show, a pair of "red skirt" snails, a pair of skunk cleaner shrimps, a few peppermint shrimps for pest control, and a singular emerald crab. I also do not shy away from the bristleworms and let them clean my deep sand bed.
Somehow they all get the job done and get along, though sometimes there's a turf war between the blue leg hermits over empty shells–but everyone else seemingly gets along.

 

[ORReefer]

We've always had the best luck with cerith snails. For a long time we couldn't find any locally and due to issues in our tank we had lost them all. Then about a year ago we found a couple at a local store, they bred and now we probably have 100 plus. What I like about them is they go everywhere... sand, rocks and glass. However, they don't seem to do much about hair algae though.

I'm looking to pick up some trochus snails when I can. Don't see those in stores either so will probably have to order them. Although, I'm not sure where would be the best place to order from. Seems like inverts from liveaquaria have a pretty high mortality rate (and that was before the Petco buyout). I've heard that trochus are good at eating hair algae which I'm currently struggling with. However, others may have hands on experience to share.

We had some of the larger nassaurus snails years ago. We found them going after a Coral and got rid of them. I haven't run across anyone else having that problem with them so not sure if that was a fluke or circumstancial evidence (Coral sick/dieing?) but it's made us cautious about trying then again. I'd love to hear what others have to say about them. Maybe there are certain species to avoid?

 

[ORReefer]

...as for hermits we only trust blue leg hermits. Reds, zebras, and emerald crabs have all been caught going after corals and/or other important inhabitants.

Even the blues are hard on each other. Started with 25 tinies (from liveaquaria so that's part of it) and within about 6-8 months was down to 6. Last count was 4. We have lots of shells of various sizes which does seem to help with aggression against each other. We also occasionally drop sinking pellets for the hermits to keep them less voracious.

We've had Coral banded several times and I really like them (don't have one currently). I can't think of any bad incidents with one of them.

 

[Wee Mad Arthur]

Stomatella snails and bristleworms. Nothing else.

 

[tautog83]

Trochus, cerith, & nassaurus

Basically this , and maybe a couple turbos

 

[Keith Burns]

I like the variety approach. I use all the inverts listed above, plus one item I have heard mentioned, lettuce nudibranch.

I like to order my clean up crew from Reeftopia.com. everything comes out of Florida so I trust they are harvested in a manner that doesn't harm the reef. Their prices are good, shipping is free with $140 order (kind of high), and NO box charge. I recieved my recent order 36 hours after placing the order. I live in Connecticut.
I ordered about 100 snails, 30 crabs, 2 nudibranch, and 3 shrimp. After acclimation I placed them all in one area of my tank so i could see dead loss and after two days i had ZERO loses.

 

[hooligan76]

Trochus snais, large nasarius snails and a few scarlet hermit crabs make up the bulk of my cuc.

 

[Super Fly]

I keep Trochus (algae) & Nassarius (leftover food & dead livestock) snails, brittle serpent star (leftover food & dead livestock) & many scarlet reef hermits (detritus) all w/o issue. Ceriths are very delicate and die easy IMO.

Here's a good article explaining about snails

What’s the Best Snail for a Reef Tank?

It seems that every couple of years a new marine snail appears in the trade that promises long life and consumption of every form of algae under the sun. The fact is, most all snails have a prefere…

joejaworski.wordpress.com

 

[jeffchapok]

I like to throw in a conch or two to keep my substrate algae free. My snails and crabs spend most of their time in the rocks.