Recommend Clean Up Crew?

[crittle143]

Very new at this, first fish tank ever. My tank is about 2 months old. Its a 55gal long. Right now I have: 40lbs live rock, plus some in the sump
3 chomis'
1 diamond goby
coral banded shrimp
cleaner shrimp
6 blue leg hermits
1 scarlet hermit (had two, one didnt make it)
6 astrea snails
6 nassarius snails
I know I need more clean up crew, any recommendations?
Sorry pic is a few weeks old. Looks much better now and getting some beautiful pink, red and neon green coloring on the rocks (hope this is a good thing).

 

[crazylegs]

Your cleanup creww will depend on alot of things. Feeding habits, substrate, intended occupants, and so on. In a new tank, add your cleanup crew as you go. That way you can "custom fit" your tank. Plus none of the cleanup crew will starve undeserved.

 

[Tuscaquatics]

You're doing well so far. You can always add some more grazing snails like turbos or more astreas. A few more nassarius might help, too, but the goby might already be keeping your sand spotless.

You could add a serpent star to get down behind rocks and in tighter spots that snails and others can't get to.

More hermits might not be bad, either. Get some more blue legs, but have more red than blue. The reds will more likely eat hair algae. And make sure and get some spare shells for the hermits to move into or they will assassinate snails to get them.

And a word on the coral banded shrimp. Watch this guy like a hawk. From personal experience, when and if these guys get a taste of a dead fish or anything meaty, they start trying to catch slow bottom-dwellers like your goby or a mandarin. And there are no guarantees that he won't slay your cleaner shrimp as well. They can be real baysterds.

 

[crittle143]

Thanks for the info. My coral banded's name is Xena. She is a bit of a bully but the cleaner is always trying to get close to her. She has adopted a large crevice to hang out in but wanders a little. So far so good. And my goby is a trip to watch, he took about a day to warm up but i woke up one morning to beautiful white sand dunes. Lol

 

[zero26]

My coral banded ate a few of my peppermints and caught my little baggani cardinal.

 

[joeshmo]

I swear hermit crabs just kill snails for fun... I only have about 25 hermits in a 125gallon, half of which are tiny blue legs. They managed to kill over 80 snails in the past two months so much that I am down to only 3 snails.


I love watching them but there is absolutely no reason for them to continually just kill all my snails I add. When I move into my 180gallon I won't be taking most of the hermits with.


Keep an eye on your astrea snails. They love to fall down on their sides and then they can't upright themselves oftentimes and they'll die like that unless you tip them over.

I have found that Turbos and Astreas are the last snails left alive. The ceriths and nerites get decimated very very quickly by the hermits.

 

[Tuscaquatics]

A friend of mine told me a long time ago to try and stay away from the blue legs because they are murderers. I haven't had one yet.

 

[R.Ram]

Do CUC's need to be in quarantine?

 

[Tuscaquatics]

Do CUC's need to be in quarantine?

Not for any reason that a fish would, like to prevent ich. You could argue that a QT would make them easy to watch for a while and make sure they're eating. I've not heard of most people QTing inverts.

 

[joeshmo]

Really? I thought the blue legs were the nice ones... I need to do more research... In any case, I am tired of killing snails and as I'm looking at my tank I do have a green haze growing on the glass... Sure would be nice if I had some snails to clean that off!

 

[crittle143]

i got 6 blue hermits but one ended being a jade hermit. He has been the best so far, i swear he has not stopped cleaning, and goes everywhere, but he did steal my scarlets shell (but he wasn't gonna make it anyways). And my blues are very peaceful they stay pretty active as well.

 

[R.Ram]

Not for any reason that a fish would, like to prevent ich. You could argue that a QT would make them easy to watch for a while and make sure they're eating. I've not heard of most people QTing inverts.

Ah ok! Cool! I just pondered whether or not the CUC's had something inside or around their shells that would eventually spread!

 

[muttley000]

Ah ok! Cool! I just pondered whether or not the CUC's had something inside or around their shells that would eventually spread!

They should be quarantined, because they could be carying ich or anything. It's not likely they are infected with anything, but they can carry. Nothing wet will make it into my tank without 5 weeks in QT.

 

[Tuscaquatics]

They should be quarantined, because they could be carying ich or anything. It's not likely they are infected with anything, but they can carry. Nothing wet will make it into my tank without 5 weeks in QT.

Most people don't bother with this since inverts can't carry ich. But I'm not gonna criticize responsible husbandry on your part. That's why I said earlier that it wouldn't hurt anything to QT them.

 

[muttley000]

Most people don't bother with this since inverts can't carry ich. But I'm not gonna criticize responsible husbandry on your part. That's why I said earlier that it wouldn't hurt anything to QT them.

We'll probably just have to disagree (which is one of the things that makes this hobby so great, there is no right way!) but anything wet can be a vector for a parasite (even a net used in multiple tanks) and not show signs of disease. I have also seen great tanks that have never had a single thing quarantined:bigeyes:

 

[hayes_101]

I don't know if he is a cleaner or not but I picked up a starry blenny over the weekend and he is probably the coolest fish in my tank! I have a 55gal also that I started about 3+ months ago and just started picking up cleaners and fish.. you are in for some fun!!!!!