Ur top 3 favorite CUC members.

[Reefahholic]

I'm about to order mine because you guys have convinced me that they do help, but more importantly, they're fun to observe.

I like how many of you put it. "I wanted to create a natural enviroment."

I would love to hear about the crew members that really make a difference, are fun to watch, safe around corals, hardy, the one that the wife likes, etc..

I'll be ordering soon! Hope to get some good ones and avoid the trouble makers or the ones that are a waste of time.

 

[ugluk]

Cleaner/Fire shrimp look great, just about everyone that I show my tank to for the first time and are not reefers are fascinated by them. They are also greedy little pigs which can be good and bad. Good is they eat anything leftover in the tank, the bad is that they will steal food from everyone.

For snails nasarrius are very cool in that they live under the sand and come up when you feed, very cool to have a bunch come out of nowhere. Cerith are good snails too. The problem I have had with snails is that they die out within a year so I always needed to replace them and I never really noticed anything that they have cleaned up. I dont bother with them much anymore.

A lot of people dont keep crabs because they will kill other creatures in the tank. The emerald or algae eaters and are very cool but like the snails they died out on me. I recently bought 10 hermits just to see what they will do for my tank.

All tanks are different though so what dies out in my tank may flourish in yours. I recomend getting a few of a bunch of different inverts and see what you like and what you can keep and adjust from there.

 

[donkeys4hire]

I have an urchins, snails and hermits. The urchin by far does the best job keeping the rock work clean.

 

[BowieReefer84]

cerith snails. drip acclimate them.

 

[shifty51008]

nass. snails, taiger tail cuke, skunk cleaner shrimp.

I an one that is not fond of crabs due to they will eat snails and anything they can get a hold of

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

The hardest workers in my tank are my zebra turbo snail, banded trochus snails and nassarius snails. Rounding out the bunch is a left handed hermit, a blue leg hermit and a couple of scarlet reef hermits, along with my harlequin serpent star and tiger pistol shrimp. The most fun to watch, hands down, is the tiger pistol shrimp.

 

[pmrossetti]

cleaner shrimp, hermits, tuxedo urchin

 

[greech]

Conchs
Tuxedo Urchin
Turbos

 

[snorvich]

Cleaner shrimp (various kinds)
Alpheus Soror pistol shrimp
nassarius snails

 

[Dyzio545]

Sand sifting star. I have one in my 55 gallon. It cleans the sandbed without making a huge mess. (like a sleeperhead goby)

 

[hypnoj]

any suggestions on something that can eat detritus that collects on a barebottom tank?

 

[EasyEd77]

any suggestions on something that can eat detritus that collects on a barebottom tank?

Love my fighting conch.

 

[phenom5]

BL hermits, astrea snails, nassarius snails.

I've never had a problem with BL hermits, and they tend to be #2 in terms of interest generated for non-reefers (my mag float is definitely #1 )

The downside of astreas is that they can't flip themselves if the fall, but they are the best all-purpose snail IMO, and they're not so big that they bulldoze everything in their path like turbos.

Beyond those mentioned I've got several other types of hermits, bumblebee snails, and plenty of hitchhikers to round out my cleanup crew (limpets, some tiny snails, astrina stars, micro brittle stars, stomellas, bristle worms, chitons, etc)

 

[zigzag1]

banded trochus snails
astrea snails
emerald crabs

 

[L.R.fisherman]

Zebra Hermits
Astira Snails
Nassarius Snails

 

[neuwave]

Scarlet reef hermits are my favorite for clean up. Pistol shrimp and fighting conch for sand.

 

[Josh_Canada]

1. cleaner shrimp (fire shrimp do not always clean fish)
2. tuxedo urchin (small, cool and blue. Lacks the huge spines keeping it no larger than 2.75 inches across.
3. staghorn hermit (he doesnt do much but he lives in a coral!)

 

[Reefahholic]

Gosh, can't wait! Sounds like a blast to watch!

 

[aleonn]

Love nassarius snails, conchs, and turbos. Didn't really like the cleaner shrimp, as they always stole food from fish and corals!

 

[C0rp]

1. Bristleworms
2. Red banded trochus snail
3. Pods