clean up crew questions!

williamp8974

New member
In about a week i will be adding the first life to my tank. The clean up crew!
Ive heard many diffrent suggestions on amount of snails and crabs. 1 snail per 1.5 gal and 1 crab per gallon. What are the sggestions here? Will that be too much? I have a 6 gallon tank, 6 lbs live rock ,8-9 lbs live sand. Also clean up crew suggestions would be great!
 
Start small you can always add more but if you over stock either they will starve to death and or decay in your tank adding to additional decay that you are trying to get rid of. Research the type of CUC you want and have diversity. Don't recommend many crabs. Maybe dwarf hermits but remember crabs are opportunistic. If they run out of food they will go after snails. Just my opinion.
 
Start small you can always add more but if you over stock either they will starve to death and or decay in your tank adding to additional decay that you are trying to get rid of. Research the type of CUC you want and have diversity. Don't recommend many crabs. Maybe dwarf hermits but remember crabs are opportunistic. If they run out of food they will go after snails. Just my opinion.

Yes i actually have heard they do that, or if u put too many they'll attack each other. Im thinking for my 6gal. 4 snails and 5 dwarf blue legged crabs.
 
Well my tanks are much larger so I have a little more "wiggle room," but for you i would reccomend a few hermit crabs (4-6), a few snails (4-6), and a cleaner shrimp or two. Don't add them all at once, add a few each weak and let them cycle the tank. The cleaner shrimp should probably be the last ones in the tank since they are the most delicate. For the snails, if your planning on making it a reef tank there are a few you should avoid, but otherwise you have a huge selection of snails that will add lots of color to your aquarium along with cleaning it. Remember, you will still have to feed the tank since it is new and theres probably not much food in there for your CUC to eat until the tank becomes more cycled. If you enjoy the hobby so much (which you will), you can get larger tanks and the CUC becomes much more exciting. It amost seems like you don't nee fish! In my 75 non i have at least 10 different species of snails, 5 different species of hermit crabs, 3 emerald crabs, a sallies lightfoot crab (who was naughty and now lives in the sump), a horshoe crab, 2 starfish, 2 sea urchins, and who knows what else! For my 90 gallon reef i have mostly the same stuff minus the things that eat corals, but I have live corals! Also with a reef tank i am able to have things like anemones, feather dusters, clams, etc, and you could to! Wow I just went way off topic but I'm to lazy to delete it so enjoy! I hope I helped your decision (waaaaay at the top)
 
Haha thanks for the opinin. Yea its actually is going to be a reef tank. So ill probably do 4 snails. And 4-5 crabs still unsure of that number. And yes a cleaner shrimp too. I would want a starfish but for this size tank ehh no theyll get too big.i do plan on switching to a larger tank sometime next yr forsure! Really enjoy it so far even tho im staring at rocks!


Well my tanks are much larger so I have a little more "wiggle room," but for you i would reccomend a few hermit crabs (4-6), a few snails (4-6), and a cleaner shrimp or two. Don't add them all at once, add a few each weak and let them cycle the tank. The cleaner shrimp should probably be the last ones in the tank since they are the most delicate. For the snails, if your planning on making it a reef tank there are a few you should avoid, but otherwise you have a huge selection of snails that will add lots of color to your aquarium along with cleaning it. Remember, you will still have to feed the tank since it is new and theres probably not much food in there for your CUC to eat until the tank becomes more cycled. If you enjoy the hobby so much (which you will), you can get larger tanks and the CUC becomes much more exciting. It amost seems like you don't nee fish! In my 75 non i have at least 10 different species of snails, 5 different species of hermit crabs, 3 emerald crabs, a sallies lightfoot crab (who was naughty and now lives in the sump), a horshoe crab, 2 starfish, 2 sea urchins, and who knows what else! For my 90 gallon reef i have mostly the same stuff minus the things that eat corals, but I have live corals! Also with a reef tank i am able to have things like anemones, feather dusters, clams, etc, and you could to! Wow I just went way off topic but I'm to lazy to delete it so enjoy! I hope I helped your decision (waaaaay at the top)
 
For a 6 gallon tank, one or two Trochus snails and perhaps one scarlet hermit crab would be a good start IMO. Hopefully you won't have to add any more janitors down the road. Don't forget, you can keep the glass & the sand clean all by yourself...
Also, six gallons might be way to small for that cleaner shrimp. I had one in my 20 gallon tank and it was bouncing off the walls. Stealing food & constantly walking all over my corals. Just more of a nuisance than anything else. GL.
 
I find snails boring, but crabs are cool little guys. Crabs will eat snails so now I just go with all crabs and couldn't be happier.
 
Start small you can always add more but if you over stock either they will starve to death and or decay in your tank adding to additional decay that you are trying to get rid of. Research the type of CUC you want and have diversity. Don't recommend many crabs. Maybe dwarf hermits but remember crabs are opportunistic. If they run out of food they will go after snails. Just my opinion.

Didn't take long for hermits to get shiny new snail shells. I regret not listening to people when they mentioned this.
 
Back
Top