How many snails for my 60 gallon?

[PadresGirl]

LiveAquaria is offering free shipping on invertebrae orders over $80 right now (they say the shipping charges have been added to the price, but their astraea snails are $1.20, much less than anywhere else that charges shipping). I want to order astraea and nassarius snails; how many do I need for my 60 gallon? Thanks!

 

[plateboy3293]

The free shipping is only on the build your own reef cleaner package.
Why not skip the astreas and get the mexican turbos?
I also recently purchased from them a couple months ago and ordered 12 astrea( never gonna do that again) 12 nassarius, 6 mex turbos, 1 atl cuke, 1 serpent star, 1 sand sifting star, 1 arrow crab , and 1 emerald crab. I bought all this for a 90 gallon dt + a 30 gallon sump. So I would say 6 nassarius, 3 mex turbos, and 6 astrea if you still want to go with them. The best snails that I bought were the mex turbos because their always cleaning the glass. The nassarius are next always cleaning the sand bed. The astrea's however barely move and their always falling on their back so I have to flip them back up.

 

[PadresGirl]

Thanks, plateboy, I'll look into the mexy's. Anybody else have any suggestions for a # (or species)? Thanks!

 

[pledosophy]

Turbo's get big and will knock over rocks and corals. Kind of a PITA IMO.

I like a mix of naussarius, cerith, and astrea's for my tanks. I also use emerald crabs and peppermint shrimp.

In my 65g tank I have

7 Astrea's
5 Cerith's
10 naussarius (they are small)
4 peppermint shrimp
6 Emerald Crabs

IME with sand sifting star fish they will not live very long in most setups so I would skip them and let the naussarius do the work. I don't keep arrow crabs anymore after I watched one kill one of my shrimp, I like the shrimp better.

 

[plateboy3293]

I don't like shrimp b/c they killed my green tentacle plate. The emerald I have started to pick on my long tentacle plate today so he's been banished for life. I still like the sand sifting star more than the nassarius b/c he covers a larger area than the nassarius do but pledosophy is right they normally don't live very long in most aquarium setups. Mine is just one of those unormal cases I guess.

 

[McCrary]

I might skip the mexican turbos as they can grow large and "bulldoze" corals and such, the astreas seem to stay smaller and get into tighter spaces. I would do 15 astreas, 12 small hermits, 5 nassarius and a pair of cleaner shrimp. That should get you a nice little crew that should take care of algae, detritus (in the sand and on the rock) and a little something to keep your fish free from parasites.

 

[macronut]

In my 90 I use nassarius, nerite and chestnut snails. The chestnut snails are work horses! I have not had much success with astrea, but some do. Trochus are good too if you have access to them, but I find my chestnut snails have the best appetite.

 

[PadresGirl]

Thanks guys, here's what I got:

5 Mexican Turbos
5 Nassarius
5 Astraea
2 Peppermint Shrimp
1 Serpent Star
5 Electric Blue Hermits

When the Mexicans start getting big, I can find them a new home. Thanks for all the suggestions!