online CUC order

[imcosmokramer]

So, I'm looking to order a CUC online. Here is what I'm running into. I have a cycled 75 with a diatom bloom (no livestock).

I was looking for some packages online. Packages rated for a 75g sound like an absurd amount.

Ex.
20 scarlet
20 blue legged
10 nassarius
1 coral banded shrimp
5 emerad crab
20 astrea
2 cleaner clabs
1 sally lightfoot (which i don't think I want)

Is that to much? Should I just go local, spend more on each cuc member, but not get as many?

 

[imcosmokramer]

If I do order a package online, does anyone want to buy any part/s of it from me? (that was just a sample package, not unnecessarily the one I would get). If anyone is interested, please let me know, I'll see what everyone wants and pick a package that includes it all. Tell me what you want and what you want to pay for it.

 

[useskaforevil]

sorry, i can't help you b/c i'm trying to save money, but trust me you don't want the sallys.

 

[Steelslinger75]

What's wrong with a sally? I had one in my tank and I never had any problems with it at all.

 

[itZme]

I personally would go with more snails than they have there and mix the species like cerith, throchus, nassarius, astrea, nerite etc... I think 5 emeralds is a lot for a tank with no bubble algae problem or anything. I would skip the coral banded shrimp since they are kinda mean and replace it with a cleaner shrimp or two.

www.Etropicals.com has free shipping if you get $60 or more from their "build your own cleaner crew" section. I have ordered from there and had no DOAs. You can get most of that stuff locally for a few dollars more but if you are buying it all at once you wil probably save $30-40 buying online over LFS. If you get each snail for 50 cents more and buy 20 that's already $10 more.

Good Luck!

I have also kept sally lightfot crabs and they are cool to watch. Never had any trouble from them personally.

 

[alix2.0]

www.saltwaterfish.com has great inverts too. i order from them all of the time, and have very rarely gotten a DOA. there is a 79$ minimum purchase requirement, a 9$ processing fee, and a 9$ fuel charge, but IMO its definately worth it. the animals are large and worth the price, and they have a 15 day gaurantee. check out the forum too, lots of great info and helpful people, just like here.

 

[imcosmokramer]

Whoa, the "Sally Defense Team" came out.

I read in a few places that they get quite large, and may be predatory. So I thought, better safe than sorry. But I suppose that could be the case with any crab.

Itzme, I agree regarding that many emerald crabs. I just checked out www.Etropicals.com . They do have free shipping with a $60 order. Although, their PreBuilt packages are essentially half the price of the equivalent byo package. I may just order one anyways.

Thanks Alix, the package I put up as a sample was actually from www.saltwaterfish.com

Do I need to put any cuc in the fuge?

K, more searching for me.

 

[useskaforevil]

some if not all sallys eat fish. once they get large enough they'll eat whatever they can catch. my uncle had a big lawn mower blenny get snatched right in front of him.

e tropicals is definatly the way to go if you're planning on spending around 60-80 since alot of places have higher minimum orders or charge you for shipping.. i would put snails in the fuge but probably not any crabs because they might dent your pod population. the only thing is sometimes what etropicals has on sale changes so it can be worth it to wait depending on the deals they have this week.

 

[alix2.0]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12170748#post12170748 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by imcosmokramer

Do I need to put any cuc in the fuge?

a couple nassarius snails to keep the sand sifted should probably work.

also, just an FYI, the cleaner clams that SWF and LFS sell are horribly overpriced. if you want some, go to the fish counter in your local grocery store, and ask for littleneck clams. theyre about $.55 and the same exact thing! when i get my fuge set up im going to throw a couple in because supposedly they feed on nitrates.

JMO but i would also skip on the sally. all crabs can be opportunistic feeders and believe me it sucks when you find out that your $6 crab ate your $30 zoas. speaking from experience. :mad2:

 

[Dtip]

The only problem with nas in the fuge is that nas need meaty foods to thrive (they basically eat scraps that the fish miss, which is yet another reason they rule). Not that you can't feed them in the fuge, of course: as long as you feed a tiny but solid, rinsed chunk that won't break up into little parts or float around, they'll eat it up pretty fast. Great fun to watch them eat.

Cerith, on the other hand, will feed on fuge film algae and I've found the long spindly tan-shell kind (from the caribbean most commonly) to be even better at hard-core sifting than nas. I've found that in the absence of any real threats, nas can eventually give up burying themselves too deep in the sand. Most species are also pretty small to begin with. The right species of cerith, though, are fairly large, and will submerge and travel underneath the top layer of your sand, popping up at night and then reburying themselves during the day.

The other common species of cerith (often called the "stocky" or mexican ones) will also play in the sand a little, but are more likely to spend more of their time cleaning the live rock and glass, even during the day. The two of these I have almost never go near the sand, while the longer tan kind almost never emerge from it.

It couldn't hurt, though, to ask the good LFS if they have deals on large CUC orders, just to compare prices.

If you're ordering from any place that has nerites, I've been looking to try one or two or those, just to flesh out my diversity a bit. They seem less common in LFS than most other species.

 

[imcosmokramer]

Dtip,

I placed an order but they were out of cerith and nerites this time of the year. I talked to them and they should have them in the near future. When I place another order I'll pick some up for you to have.
Did you get my PM? You can answer in a PM if it's easier.

 

[Dtip]

I always forget to check em since this board software doesn't notify you on the page.