Pros & Cons on specific clean up crew critters

[KarenLR75]

Finally got a couple of Conchs and 5 small hermit crabs. I'm unsure what kind of hermit crabs they are, but we want to add to the crew.

I've looked at descriptions of the following on liveaquaria - if you have any good or bad experiences with them, please share as I don't want to get everything listed. I'm also looking for some of the ones that may be a bit bigger than others as we have a melanurus wrasse and a white tailed bristletooth tang who see the smaller ones as "food":

Also, can any clean up crew be placed in our refugium - like where we place the chaeto as our algae issues often start in refugium and they've done a heck of a cleanup on our tank so far:

1. Nassarius Snail (these were recommended already) - do they ever come in bigger sizes?
2. Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab
3. Mexican Turbo Snails
4. Dwarf Red Tip Hermit Crab (hhm...dwarf may be too tiny?)
5. Babylon Snail
6. Banded Trochus Snail
7. Dwarf Zebra Orange & Black Hermit Crab
8. Dwarf Blue Leg Hermit Crab (think these are the crabs we got already?)

I did look into getting a cucumber but the whole 'toxin' thing made me hesitate...

 

[HBtank]

I tend to lean heavily on snails, less on crabs/shrimp/"other". When it comes to crabs, generally just hermits; shrimp may be some of the most active/quickest cleaners, and something like a cleaner shrimp is iconic, but do have some downsides for me (ultimately I hate watching them steal from LPS).The small hermits fill in the middle ground for me, fairly active but almost entirely harmless, and I generally limit myself to ~1-2 of them per 10 gallons. They still will kill snails, mostly for their shells IME.

Snails I love, particularly Margarita, Trochus, and Cerith snails; they all stay smaller and some like the Cerith do far more work than just algae (eat general detritus), spawn a ton, and help with sand-beds etc.. You may want to limit larger snails like Turbos and Astrea (still like em, just limited #s), as they become more problematic knocking stuff over and reach less areas over time as they grow; they do work, but you just don't need many.

Other CUC just depends on the tank IMO, all kinds of stars, urchins, and other invertebrates to look at, but small snails/hermits is where I would focus.

 

[KarenLR75]

I tend to lean heavily on snails, less on crabs/shrimp/"other". When it comes to crabs, generally just hermits; shrimp may be some of the most active/quickest cleaners, and something like a cleaner shrimp is iconic, but do have some downsides for me (ultimately I hate watching them steal from LPS).The small hermits fill in the middle ground for me, fairly active but almost entirely harmless, and I generally limit myself to ~1-2 of them per 10 gallons. They still will kill snails, mostly for their shells IME.

Snails I love, particularly Margarita, Trochus, and Cerith snails; they all stay smaller and some like the Cerith do far more work than just algae (eat general detritus), spawn a ton, and help with sand-beds etc.. You may want to limit larger snails like Turbos and Astrea (still like em, just limited #s), as they become more problematic knocking stuff over and reach less areas over time as they grow; they do work, but you just don't need many.

Other CUC just depends on the tank IMO, all kinds of stars, urchins, and other invertebrates to look at, but small snails/hermits is where I would focus.

Thanks for your well thought out reply, HBtank!! Heading out to LFS soon.

 

[Fiver]

I know this isn't on your list, but I have to say this because I hadn't seen it anywhere before I started my tank: My brittle star eats shrimps, probably ate a lot of my porcelain crabs, ate a toadstool coral and probably ate about 4-5 zoa frags. It's not one of those big green brittle stars people are always warning you about; it's the pretty common reddish brown ones.

I always thought some rogue gorilla crabs were to blame until I got rid of them and saw my brittle star hunt down a new peppermint shrimp. I posted about it here, and someone said they also have a taste for zoas. That explained why all of my zoa frags disappeared.