Clean Up Crew
- Thread starter chinta
- Start date
reefnetworth
Premium Member
cerrith snails, hermit crabs. if you will have LR and live plants. w/o LR, i would go with nasserius snails and cerriths. im not sure if the hermits would bother the SH's or not. but they would keep the LR clean. have a great day, 
reverendmaynard
New member
Personally, I think I'm going to stay away from crabs of all types. While I doubt they would bother the SHs directly (except for really large ones), I can foresee a problem at feeding time. If you want to use a feeding station method, you may find that the hermits are first on the scene every time. Nassarius snails are a better choice for carrion cleanup, IMO.
IMO the best cleanup crew is bristle worms. They won't bother your horses. They will clean up uneaten food without gobbling up everything before your horses get a chance to eat... And best of all, once they get too big and ugly, you can pull them out of your tank (nutrient export) and throw them out because they are, after all, only butt uggly worms. 
I also have a few nassarius snails in my tank, but thats more 'cause I like to watch them than for cleanup.
By all means, add things like ceriths and/or astrea snails to clean up thing like algae and diatoms. They will also give you something more to watch in your tank.
I have never kept hermits with my horses so I don't know how much they would compete with them for food.
Fred
I also have a few nassarius snails in my tank, but thats more 'cause I like to watch them than for cleanup.
By all means, add things like ceriths and/or astrea snails to clean up thing like algae and diatoms. They will also give you something more to watch in your tank.
I have never kept hermits with my horses so I don't know how much they would compete with them for food.
Fred
charlieborg
Member
I have 2 pairs dwarf seahorses 2 male 2 female, 1 pipe fish. So dido on the above question.
I have never tried clowns and those that have get mixed results.
Clowns are very aggressive feeders, and in my experience with them in a reef tank, pigs. If you put it in the tank, they will eat it.
In general it is recommended to put slower moving more shy fish in with clowns. Fish like gobies, which establish a terrritory near their burrow and don't venture too far from it make ideal tank mates.
P. fridmani is also a good fish as it tends to be a little more shy and not such an aggressive feeder. I have also heard firefish are ok.
Fred
Clowns are very aggressive feeders, and in my experience with them in a reef tank, pigs. If you put it in the tank, they will eat it.
In general it is recommended to put slower moving more shy fish in with clowns. Fish like gobies, which establish a terrritory near their burrow and don't venture too far from it make ideal tank mates.
P. fridmani is also a good fish as it tends to be a little more shy and not such an aggressive feeder. I have also heard firefish are ok.
Fred
I have a small seahorse tank, and my cleanup crew consists of snails and a cleaner shrimp. The shrimp is super aggressive when it comes to feeding time and will actually take food that one of my horses is about to eat, but if I give it food to start with it's ok.
I don't have any fish in with my horses, just them, they are plenty active enough and have enough personality for at least ten other fish.
For corals, I stuck with soft corals that don't have sweeper tentacles, I have a gorg. with them so they can hitch to that, daisy polyps and some leather.
As to the best place to buy horses, it depends on what kind you want. www.dracomarine.org is really nice
I don't have any fish in with my horses, just them, they are plenty active enough and have enough personality for at least ten other fish.
For corals, I stuck with soft corals that don't have sweeper tentacles, I have a gorg. with them so they can hitch to that, daisy polyps and some leather.
As to the best place to buy horses, it depends on what kind you want. www.dracomarine.org is really nice
pledosophy
Active member
I have kept a variety of corals with seahorses. Leathers, mushrooms, gorgs, ricordias, zoo's, sponges, macro algaes, colt's, sun's, and even montipora SPS. Dwarfs are more limites. Gorgs could be cool, not an expert on the rest. I do know sun's are a no no.
As far as fish and cleanup crew.
I like gobies and have kept firefish with seahorses. i have kept about 15 different gobies all were fine. Peppermint shrimp are cool, but cleaners pose problems IME. I also stay away from other shrimp species. The only crab I use is a scarlet reef hermit, have had problems with many others. I have also had succsess with some blennies, but they are more risky. the tail spot seems to be cool,but IME lawn mower blennies can be very aggressive and are not good tankmates. I have even kept various wrasses with seahorses but only found the 6 line to be O.K. IME clowns even at a very young age are not suitable tankmates.
I have tried several tankmates. When I started there was no defintive list so I had to find my own. I have found somethings to be completely cool, others to be alright, others to be horrible.
For cleanup I like naussarius snails, trochus, snails, turbo snails (provided you don't have pretty red macro's then they suck IME), peppermint shrimp, and a good sand sifting goby.
IMO you will not be able to keep a starfish in a 30g for long.
Good Luck.
As far as fish and cleanup crew.
I like gobies and have kept firefish with seahorses. i have kept about 15 different gobies all were fine. Peppermint shrimp are cool, but cleaners pose problems IME. I also stay away from other shrimp species. The only crab I use is a scarlet reef hermit, have had problems with many others. I have also had succsess with some blennies, but they are more risky. the tail spot seems to be cool,but IME lawn mower blennies can be very aggressive and are not good tankmates. I have even kept various wrasses with seahorses but only found the 6 line to be O.K. IME clowns even at a very young age are not suitable tankmates.
I have tried several tankmates. When I started there was no defintive list so I had to find my own. I have found somethings to be completely cool, others to be alright, others to be horrible.
For cleanup I like naussarius snails, trochus, snails, turbo snails (provided you don't have pretty red macro's then they suck IME), peppermint shrimp, and a good sand sifting goby.
IMO you will not be able to keep a starfish in a 30g for long.
Good Luck.
