How many inverts?

WilllisTooL

New member
So right now i have 5 small hermit crabs, a cleaner shrimp an emrald crab a very small star fish that appears every now and again. But i want to get a snail or 2 clean the glass of algea as well as a nassarius to help with anything dead and excess food(goby is a messy eater). Do you think that is too much? If not what sort of snails should i go for? I was thinking maybe just a bumblebee or 2.
 
So apparently this is one of the lamest threads on here. Sorry ya'll i just was curious about how many inverts people keep in their nanos and how many i should have. But seeing as i have gotten no response i shall slowly sink this thread into the bottom of my tank.
 
I also had a very hard time finding such info for my 24G..

some people put as many as 30 inverts in a 10G, others put 5. My best source for now was a thread where everyone was giving their inverts list in their 24G and I used average on those numbers to get my initial crew...

in my 24G I have 2 hermits, 4 nassarius (sp?), about 4 "other" snails (turbo and such) and one cleaner shrimp. I,ll get more snails becaue they are the ones on my tank walls and I want more cleaning there.

do a search on nano-reef.com for words like "crew" "cleaning" and you should get what you're looking for.

Regards,
E.
 
hmmm, very interesting, thanks very much for a reply! i have 5 hermits right now so im guessing thats plenty. I want something for the glass and sand though. How much did you all pay for the nassarious at the LFS?
 
they go for ~$1 to 2.

currently in my 10g, I have 4 nassarius, 3 hermits, 2 turbos, 2 astrea, 1 skunk shrimp, 1 emerald, and 2 sexy shrimps and about 16 hermits in my ac70/fuge.

you could put more shrimps if you want, but usually agression occurs between the shrimps and the stronger ends up killing the weaker.
 
i have 34 snails in my 29, i dont think its enough, i have 10 astrea, 12 cerinth, and 12 nassarious, i might get another 5-10 of each cerinth and nassarious, and im goign to put 6 of the astrea in my sump im making, whould be up soon, in a 10 gallon, id do liek 10 nassarious, 5 cerinth, and 4-5 astrea

alot of nassarious, cuz they are amsll but move fast, and bury themselves in sand, astrea to clean glass and rocks, and cerinth are kind of big ans slow, but they bury troo nad do good work, the hermits might try to kill the snails though, so im putting my hermits i nthe live rock chamber of my sump
 
I had two bumble bees and they never cleaned the glass, just stayed on the rock. Cerinths, nass., astreas, turbos are all good choices.

Thumbs up!
Kaserpick
 
Yeah so i ended up with 3 astreas bc thats all the LFS had to offer. Kind of disapointing but oh well. Only 1 local LFS to choose from, there are so many cool inverts though, i really want to start another nano with tons of different inverts maybe no fish at all.
 
i have 14 hermits, 6 nassarius, 16 turbos, 1 bluestarfish, and 3 peppermint shrimps in my 5g and in my 12g i have 22 hermits, 10 turbos, 4 peppermints, 6 nassarius, and 8 astriea snails.
 
that does seem like a lot.

anyway, i'm setting up a 12 gal nanocube and i think i'm going to go with no more than 4 nassarius, 4 astrea, 4 cerith, 2-3 hermits, 1-2 cleaner shrimp and a small brittle star.
 
i'd start out with a small number, and add as you feel necessary. you'll still have to mag clean the glass, as the snails won't get everything, but they will do well.

i'd recommend against just dumping a bunch in there, as you don't want to have more animals than your algae growth and detritus accumulation can support, they'll starve then.

the hermits will kill some snails when they need bigger shells, so that's something to consider as well. i'm not a big fan of crabs at all.

i have 5 turbos, 7 margaritas, and a banded shrimpg (not good for a nano) in my 58RR... and i'm going to be adding about 8 nassarius snails to work on the sand. for me, that's plenty... some people would put that many in a 15 gallon, but i don't need that many, it all depends on what your tank needs.
 
I think you make a very good point, throwing in a whole bunch just seems like a horible idea, thats part of the reason i have waited so long on getting snails, i tell you what though, those hermit crabs did an amazing job on the top sand level cleaning each piece off.
 
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