How many crabs in your CUC?

[OneReef]

Just curious how many crabs people are using for CUC? Can you list how many crabs and your aquarium size? You can list snails if you wish, but I am mainly interested in crab numbers. I looked at the suggested table on LiveAquaria and it seems really high. I have a 120g and currently have like 10 crabs. They suggest for 125g something like 200+ crabs of various types. Seems like a lot to me, but I do have some minor hair algae I'd like help with.

 

[jdaniels175]

0 in my 50 gal. My thinking is to only get crabs if you like them or for very specific reasons, like algae control via Emerald crabs. I can't see having 200 crabs in a 125. must be a new tank style, crab dominate. IMHO most "Clean up crews" have way to many animals anyway.

 

[thegrun]

50 gallon mixed reef, 0 crabs, 4 small hermit crabs

 

[TheGodParticle]

I actually agree with the above poster. I have 0 crabs and snails in my 150. I use 2 fighting conch and some various shrimp (Coral banded, cleaner shrimp, fire shrimp) it's of my personal belief that havibg a large CUC can actually do a lot more harm than good. I see these threads all the time, people buy 200+ snails and crabs for CUC and in a month or two can't figure out why their nitrates are sky high and have algae everywhere. The clean-up crews compete and most of the time there is mass die off of the CUC.... ends up doing more harm than good. Not to say a small CUC isn't beneficial, I just wouldn't go overboard.

 

[mayjong]

0 crabs

 

[tkeracer619]

Crabs? No thanks, I have enough problems.

 

[Lateralus]

In my 120 I have 30ish blue legs, most are very small and a couple ornimentals. For snails I have 5 astreas, 2 turbos, 2 nassarius and a tiger conch. Tbh I don't think you need to look past the worms, pods and everything else that comes on live rock for your cuc. I feel they are much more efficient than any hermit or snail you can buy and will ebb and flow as needed.

 

[davocean]

I've had 0 crabs for a long time, don't like them, they pick at snails.
I just recently got a hermie by accident that was in some rubble, figured eh, my GF likes him, one won't be a big deal, right??
So my GF yells to me she is watching that hermit pull a snail off the glass panel, so not a dead snail, and there was plenty of rubble/shells.
Emerald crabs I will get once in a while, and that is only temporary to remove any valonia, because when they get big they knock things over.
Fortunately they are usually fairly easy to catch.
Acro/commensal crabs are awesome though if you score any hitching on any sps, those are wonderful.

 

[cloak]

No crabs, (emerald, lightfoot, etc) but a ratio of about one scarlet hermit to every 25-30 gallons of water has always served me well.

 

[Palting]

IMO, the actual number of CUC being sold is way too high. They end up dying slowly and feeding themselves until a balance is achieved.

150 gallon mixed reef running almost 4 years, 3 hermit blue leg crabs, 2 red leg, 1 skunk shrimp, maybe 2 surviving snails. Other than brittle stars and assorted critters numbering in the multitude living in the substrate and the rocks, that's it for my CUC. No algae problems at all. The answer to algae problem IMO is not CUC, but correction of the underlying problem causing the algae outbreak.

 

[OneReef]

Here is the chart I referenced on LiveAquaria. Just seems way out of wack.

 

[fermentedhiker]

Reefcleaners recommends 29 assorted hermits for a 120. A little more reasonable, but still seems like a lot.

 

[tkeracer619]

Why wouldn't they recommend more then you should have?

They sell more, they die off polluting the tank, they sell you more, rinse, repeat.

 

[raybyrne67]

75gal mixed reef cuc, 2 emerald crabs, 3 turbo, 5 nassarias, 1 tiger conch, 1 blood red cleaner shrimp.

 

[james30ct]

I have 2 hermits that were moved to the sump.

 

[NTP66]

3, because the others weren't smart enough to hide while the trigger was awake.

 

[DLANDINO]

I have two blue leg hermits and one emerald crab. I don't keep many hermits because I don't like replacing my snail population often.

 

[slgcmg]

I have about 40 in a 180. Wish I cold keep snails instead but my Melanurus loves the taste of those.

 

[robotman]

like 4 scarlett hermits, 4 blue knuckle, had 4 emeralds but I cant find them anymore, 1 hitchhiker crab

 

[barjam]

I had 10 hermits in my 120 gallon. I removed them and started to see all sorts of tiny snails (collonista & and a mini limpet type) and starfish pop up. Snails seem fairly useless against the types of algae that grow in my tank anyhow. 30 new astrea snails did more in one day than the 10 crabs they replaced did the entire time they were there.

So zero for me.