Exotic, out of the ordinary clean up crew

[KirbyBTF]

I'm currently cycling my dream tank, a 7.5g Mr Aqua Bowfront. It's just about ready for a cuc so I've been searching for something a bit more on the exotic side. Unfortunately I haven't had much luck. I'm going to completely skip hermits (Lots of coral on the sandbed, don't want to risk inquisitive crabs), and focus mainly on snails. Lettuce Nudi will definitely be one of the cuc, if you can even call a half-photosynthetic slug a cuc. What other snails can you reccomend? Doesn't even have to be a snail! What can you reccomend that will do an admirable job cleaning up the nasties in my tank?

 

[Calappidae]

Not an expert on snails.. but what about bumblebee and sexy shrimp? They're harmless scavengers for a cuc. (except the bumblebee is a close relative of the harlequin shrimp and may eat any starfish in the tank as well as scavenge any leftover food..but I don't think your going to be able to put any in a tank that small anyway.)

 

[clay12340]

My favorite nano inhabitants were mini brittle stars, and nassarius for cleaning. They were incredibly fun to watch and really actively hunted for food. Not cleaners really, but sexy shrimp, and dancing anemone shrimp made excellent show pieces. Different species(I think at least) seem to have difference dances which was kind of neat.

I had a pom-pom crab that was extremely interesting though he didn't do particularly well long term for me. He was incredibly timid, and it seemed like even the tiny anemone shrimp in the tank with him bullied him. Not sure if it was a common trait in them or if that one was just already ill or unhappy about something in the environment.

Had a cleaner shrimp that was a complete puppy dog as well. Certainly not out of the ordinary, but his personality was awesomely fun. Everyone loved him. He was just completely fearless. He'd flutter around the top of the tank wanting you to feed him and if you're hands were in the tank you were definitely getting the spa treatment. Downside was it was in my office and everyone who came by felt like it was okay to stick their hands in the tank ...

In my opinion the best part about the tiny tanks is that you really get up close and personal with the stuff that you never notice in the bigger tanks. I had more fun with my cleaner crew in the nanos than I did with most fish I've experienced.

I always wanted to try a breeding pair of harlequin shrimp, but they're pretty specialized and would be really rough if you didn't have an ample supply of food.

Good call on skipping the crabs. They're a nightmare in tiny tanks imo. I had one tiny hermit and he managed to try on every snail in the tank in the span of a single day. Had a mithrax that pulled hundreds of dollars of ricordeas off the rocks and completely wrecked the tank the night after I added him. Incredibly stupid addition and I knew better, but I thought hey crabs are neat and I wanted something a little more assertive than the pom-pom...

 

[KirbyBTF]

Cleaner shrimp are a must, probably not peppermints seeing as they arent true cleaner shrimp and because they are extremely common. Maybe a skunk cleaner, I like those little guys. I'm seriously considering harlequin shrimp, maybe I can get some info on feeding. I know I'll have to suppliment starfish but I'm worried about the phosphate spikes come feeding time, I'm going to have a lot of expensive corals in there and phosphate spikes are my worst nightmare.

@Calappidae: Hopefully I can get some input from you, I know you're a big supporter of harlequins. How often do you feed? I know I can do chocolate star legs (but I'd feel so bad chopping a leg off!). On average how much do you spend monthly supporting your harlequins? I'm considering one right now, two max (mated pair). What sort of "burrow?" do they need? Do I need a dedicated area they can call home? My aquascape is fairly sparse, not a lot of hidey holes. It's a very minimal DIY epoxy archway scape. Just looking for basic/advanced information on how to keep these guys. I LOVE how they look. Also, personality wise what am I looking at? Any interesting behaviors I can look forward to? I like the thought of a harlequin because of the special needs they require. I want my tank to be very hands on, something I can look forward to watching and interacting with (Feeding and such) when I come home from a long terrible day at work.

 

[Calappidae]

Harlequins are not as bad they most people think. Expensive, perhaps..

All the Chocolate chip stars in my area range around 10-20 dollars. I buy about 2 per month.. so 20 dollars a month for me. I freeze all my starfish (moral reasons.) before feeding and whenever they are out and about hunting I give them another starfish leg. They only come out to feed.. if you see them walking around.. feed them. The bad thing about frozen is it decays fast and they need constantly fed.. the goal is more feedings with less amount of food on the frozen diet.

To give an idea.. mine usually eat a 2 inch leg every other day.

You have to be EXTREMELY careful with them in a small tank or reef setup.. or worse of all a mini-reef.. These guys are employees of the phosphate and ammonia factory. This photo I took yesterday is a prime example why:

Actually, this was the first and only time so far I gave them a live star

I was embarrassed when I got my water tested at the lfs today.. my ammonia was skyhigh and it's a ten gallon... make sure you got some amquel plus on hand incase they give you a problem.. they really aren't reef safe since they pollute the water quality.. but that can easily be overlooked if you really keep up with them.

 

[rssjsb]

Cleaner shrimp won't clean up aiptasia, ich, or any other "nasty" in your tank. They're really just ornamental. So they're not necessary unless you just like the way they look.

Sexy shrimp or some sort of periclimines shrimp (like petersen's) are pretty and interesting in a tank that size, but be sure your tank is covered. They will jump out.

 

[spoggy]

I've always been a big fan of spaghetti worms. Some say they can reproduce to "invasive" proportions, but that's not been my experience.

 

[clay12340]

I've always been a big fan of spaghetti worms. Some say they can reproduce to "invasive" proportions, but that's not been my experience.

Even if they did it'd be neat to toss in food and watch the substrate grow arms and fight over it.

 

[Calappidae]

Even if they did it'd be neat to toss in food and watch the substrate grow arms and fight over it.

I have about 70 of them doing the same thing to my corals. They are interesting if not in big numbers but after awhile they can become annoying.