Favourite Clean up animals

[usefulidiot213]

It's that time again, where I need to beef up my clean up crew. I was going to do what I always do and just get 50 Turbos & 50 mixed hermit crabs & throw them in, but I was curious if there are any other inverts that people have aside from Snails & Hermits that work well as part of the clean up crew.

I was also wondering if you guys throw any inverts in your fuge. I will thinking about throwing in a couple of snails & Hermits, but then I am worried about the hermits eating the pod population.. Maybe just snails? Does it even make a difference?

 

[spamreefnew]

tagging along. the usual crabs/snails seem useless IMO

 

[aleonn]

Maybe it's just my limited experience, but I don't trust hermits and all other crabs with any snails and corals. I've just had too much crab on snail violence, so my tank is just snails (Ceriths, Nassarius, assorted Turbos, Nerites, and fighting conchs).

 

[DLANDINO]

My Green Serpent star is the best at cleaning the tank of settled food and waste. It is an unintentional clean up crew inhabitant but does the job none the less. I originally bought him because I though he looked cool. Now, folks may say that the green ones are terrors and fish killers but from my experience this is not the case. As for the old standard I have never had a better clean up crew than Ceriths and LARGE Mexican turbo snails.

 

[usefulidiot213]

Anybody keep a clean up crew in their Fuge?

 

[DLANDINO]

Nope, I have attempted to keep a snail or two but they always make their way back to my main display so I have given up. Don't put anything predatory in there but snails are fine to stir the sand bed (if you have one) and eat detritus.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

My new favorite snail is the banded trochus. I put ten of them into my 30 cube and they are machines at cleaning the rocks and glass. I also have a zebra turbo, mexican turbo, a handful of tongan nassarius snails, a handful of margarita snails, a few ceriths, a handful of scarlet reef hermits and a harlequin serpent starfish.

 

[njudson]

I was going to do what I always do and just get 50 Turbos & 50 mixed hermit crabs

Unless you have a giant tank this seems like a ton of turbos and hermits.

 

[cakemanPA]

Fighting conchs are my favorite cleaner being. I am adding some more to my 240 shortly...


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[usefulidiot213]

Unless you have a giant tank this seems like a ton of turbos and hermits.

It's a 125gal 48x24x24 with about 100lbs of live rock and a .5 - 1" SSB How many inverts would you add?

 

[usefulidiot213]

I have never had a Fighting conchs. I might add a couple of those to check them out. What about some of the other inverts like Arrow Crabs, CBB Shrimp or Sally Lightfoot. Are they more for show, or do they actually have an impact on the cleaning duties.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

Arrow crabs, coral banded shrimp and sally lightfoot crabs have a bad habit of becoming predatory the larger they get. I would skip all three of those.

 

[usefulidiot213]

Arrow crabs, coral banded shrimp and sally lightfoot crabs have a bad habit of becoming predatory the larger they get. I would skip all three of those.

All 3 of them become predatory?
I thought those were pretty common inverts in reef tanks. The only one I have ever owned is the CBS, he just walked around like he was on muscle beach. I had him for about 2 years until he randomly disappeared... ...

 

[KSzegi]

Along with the typical snails, I like the trochus and nerite. I also have a couple fighting conch. I added several chitons a few months back and they do a really great job in their 'home turf' area. I keep a couple of cerith, astrea and nassarius in my fuge.