life span

[undertcontrolj]

I am just curious about the life span of things like snail, hermits, and other CUC. It seems that every now and then, even when things i the tank are doing good, some snail or crab of some sort will die. Anyone else have this problem.

 

[sal-t-dawg]

I had lost some snails only to learn that they can be sensitive to nitrate levels.

 

[undertcontrolj]

yeah i know that can happen. i was just wondering to aside from poor water conditions is there just a natural cycle to these things.

 

[NeveSSL]

I think there is definitely a natural cycle, but it depends on a lot of things other than dying from old age. Specifically, shrimp seem to be rather sensitive to parameter changes of just about any type and also, I think they have a short lifespan in general (2 or 3 years max). All of my snails seem to find the best way possible to fall on their backs where I can't reach them and thus, perish. Hermits are always fighting each other and snails for shells (I have quite a collection of shells now ). My emerald crabs just kind of disappear, along with nassarius, too. I'm not quite sure what to make of that just yet, but maybe one day it will become clear.

All in all, I try to think of CuC as something that needs to be replenished around every 6 months to a year, much like RO/DI filters.

Brandon

 

[undertcontrolj]

Glad to hear that i am not the only one that thinks that more than just water quality play a roll in the life span of these critters.

 

[ameares8]

No, I agree. They seem to disappear more than anything you will have in your tank. Sometimes I don't even find the shells, maybe they get buried. Who knows, it's just another mystery of the deep...or shallow or something like that.

 

[Brickyardpub]

i was just going to post a question on this today... my CUC seems to be slowly dying off , Nass snails, Astreas... all in the last 2 months i would say. It had been going strong for about a year now.

Corals are all doing wonderful, fish are fine.. hadn't checked levels in some time , but everything is spot on.. I'm inclined to chalking it up to a life cycle.

I've got hundreds and hundreds of what look like baby Abalone snails and Turbos growing in the tank these days... most no bigger than a pencil eraser so I am guessing the large ones are quite a bit older....

 

[undertcontrolj]

Yeah i am not ready to chalk up the death of a clean up crew to water problems every time. I mean i can look at my tank and it doing great and then i noticed my emerald crab moving really slow. Next thing i know he is dead and being made lunch of. All the shrimp are doing good and i figured that if there were water problems the shrimp would be the first to go. Plus i had just done a water change and checked all Parameters a day or two beforehand.

 

[DMBillies]

My guess, guys, is mostly starvation frankly (aside from snails, particularly astreas, falling on their backs). Our tanks are intended to be run algae free for the most part. All of that CuC is constantly chewing on stuff and, if all goes well, there is never much left. Add nutrient removal to the recipe and there's not much "fuel" in the water for the algae to grow back...

And if I'm right, why not just buy less clean-up crew?

Well... most people probably could run less. That said, I don't know about you, but I try really hard to keep my tank conditions stable. Nonetheless, from time to time, things don't quite work out the way I hope or I get some type of algae that is a bit harder to get rid of... stuff happens. A bit of extra CuC can act as a little extra buffer to prevent outbreaks when your skimmer overflows or you get a little lazy on a water change.

 

[NeveSSL]

And Brian comes out of hiding...

Starvation does indeed make a lot of sense. Good point.

Brandon

 

[fallinapart]

Brian?...Brian?....why does that name sound so familiar?

good to see you around. and good point! guess that is why I over feed, so the snails will thrive

 

[undertcontrolj]

what timing you do have brian. I was just wondering were you were at when i made that last post. That is a very good observation about the algae. For some reason my thought process did not really go along the lines of a clean up crews purpose, clean up algae, so if there was a lack there might be some casualties. Perfect at least there is another reason besides high nitrates or something along those lines. But perfect water quality on the other hand i guess would present a problem for them