cleaning crew question

[agentdelaney]

Hey folks,

As of late i've been watching my sand, and i'm just not happy with how it looks. I see a lot of your pictures with some nice pure white sand in it, and i guess i'm just curious what i'm missing.

I have a 65 gallon cube, with 3 turbo snails, 5 nassarius snails, an emerald crab and a conch snail.

I have been leery about getting into shrimp and such because of clowns supposedly going after them.

what can you guys suggest?

 

[jackde]

My CUC is somewhat limited compared to others.

3 large turbos work the rocks and glass.
Coral banded shrimp picks at holes in rocks.
2 good size nassarius, 1 conch and a Diamond goby do the sand.

Haven't found a need to add more at this time. Have to add Nori so things son't starve.

 

[coreenm]

I have more than most (and more than needed for my 90 gallon) because I love inverts, find them fascinating to watch. I have a ton of snails of various types, two conches, a pom-pom crab, a few emerald crabs, tons of tiny hermits and a few larger ones, a serpent star and a brittle star, four sexy shrimp (not really CUC), a coral banded shrimp, and a peppermint shrimp.

I also have a pair of clowns (percs) and I've never seen them go after any of the three shrimp types I have. And the sexy shrimp have chosen to live right under the bubble coral, which is where the clowns stay. Living so close together, I can only assume the clowns leave them alone when I'm not watching, or I'd be missing sexy shrimp and/or they would move to a different hang out.

 

[agentdelaney]

good info, thank you very much! i know i shouldn't really go by what "live aquaria" has on there site, because you can apparently pick up a package of inverts and all include much more than what I have in mine. sounds like hermits is what i'm missing, as well as stars and possibly a goby to do the work. didn't really think of that.

 

[Foody]

Not only do my Clarkiis not both my shrimp (peppermint and coral banded), my CBS actually cleans them at night when they are sleeping. First time I saw this behavior it scared me to death. I thought he was trying to eat the fish. Cool behavior. I love observing the various behaviors of all of my livestock.

 

[DustyReefer]

Do you siphon your sand bed out at all? because that could help a lot to getting your sand to look cleaner

 

[agentdelaney]

i do every time i do my water change. i guess that's what kind of freaks me out a bit. i am a little light on rock, i have like 38 lbs in my tank, so i do need some more, but i'm not 100% sure if that's effecting my sand quality either.

 

[Randy15]

My sand CUC consists of a handfull of dove snails, one conch, and a fat ol' cucumber. Seems to keep my sand really clean, to the point that when I siphon my tank I really don't get all that much out of the bed.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

the right kind of cucumber (or Conch) should keep the sandbed in a 65 cube clean. Conch must be (positively) a Queen.

Cuke- not sure of species name.. but looks like a black turd.
Randy- can you post a pic of yours?

 

[agentdelaney]

so a male conch would eat more your saying? like yesterday when my lights were on it usually comes out, didn't see it once yesterday. i've heard cucumbers are great, same with hermits. I guess i don't want to get to crazy with inverts if i do need too, or if it hurts my ecosystem i guess.