clean up crew

[firethefish]

What do you guys recommend as an efficient clean up crew? I've heard many different recommendations including sand sifting starfish, horseshoe crabs etc. which only perish. What I want to know is what has worked best for you, astrea snails, mexican turbos, blue legged hermits ?

 

[Elan L.]

if i had to do it all over again i wouldnt get too many hermits they murder all of my astrea and turbo snails.

 

[ReefWreak]

I'm a big fan of only snails. I have probably about... 15 large size astrea snails in my 120, maybe 2 or 3 nassarius, and I had a conch that started off 3" long, and then died in the last 3 months at some point, but his shell was 6-7" long when he died.

No hermits, no emeralds. I've always had bad luck with them, because I always saw them killing astreas for their shells as was mentioned by Elan.

I'd almost be willing to try blueleg hermits again, but that's about the extent of crabs I'd be willing to try. I don't think you'll have too much of a problem of predation if you got one of those GIANT clean up crew kits from one of the online places where they just include hundreds of cleaners. I've never done that because of the price, and only have pieced my crew together when I had a couple of bucks here or there.

Oh, and I also have 2 tangs and 2 dwarf angels who all eat algae. My sailfin eats anything green, and my Tomini tang eats a lot of the red/brown crud that grows on the rocks, as well as green stuff.

 

[illal]

all snails here! just get a good mix of snails and youll be good... btw i dont like crabs cause they walk all over the corals and will take food right from ther mouth

 

[Elan L.]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14182864#post14182864 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by illal
all snails here! just get a good mix of snails and youll be good... btw i dont like crabs cause they walk all over the corals and will take food right from ther mouth

i hate that! impossible to spot feed. Is there any fish out their that eats just hermits?

 

[firethefish]

Well, it looks as if I will stick with snails. At one point i must have had over 100 blue legged hermits in my other tank. Out on the boat one day my kids collected them from one of the spoil islands in biscayne bay. They did a good job of keeping the sand clean but usually resorted to cannibalism to upgrade shells and occasionally would gang up and eat the astrea snails. I wound up giving most of them away.
So, a mix of astrea, nassarius, turbos and maybe a conch. Will any of these clean the sand or will i have to resort back to the blue legged hermits?

 

[Daffydanny]

Nassaurius Snails are detritus eaters and are great for sifting sand

 

[Elan L.]

get a bullet goby for the sand. I would stay away from Sand Sifting sea stars, will clear out your whole sandbed then starve

 

[ReefWreak]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14183297#post14183297 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Elan L.
i hate that! impossible to spot feed. Is there any fish out their that eats just hermits?

Interceptor does a great job of eating hermits

It'll also kill any shrimp you've got, your copepod population (temporarily), and any other crabs you have that you might like.

 

[Elan L.]

yea thats the problem i like my sally lightfoot and shrimp