Lets talk about- Clean up crews

[Detri]

Lets talk about ~ Clean up crews ~

Lets start a descussion about clean up crews. They are always talked about in general in almost every thread, but no real descussion on them as a whole.

They are a minor subject to the hobbiest, yet they play an important part to the success of our aquariums and reefs. Could you do without them? Maybe? Are they essential? Why? Snails, whats the capacity per gallon? Hermits, what are your likes and dislikes? Who are the work horses? What are good additions for color, movement and behavior?

Add Shrimp to the descussion, along with stars and cleaner fish. This is my aim for this thread, but wanted to descuss the system as a whole.

Ron, hobbiest in the making.

 

[tacocat]

I'll chime in on cerith snails. Cerith snails are supposed to be good detrius and algae eaters (diatoms). They are small so they seem ineffective on turf algae. There is a huge difference between Pacific and Atlantic cerith snails. The Pacific ones are squat and dark, while the Atlantic ones are long, slender, and whitish.

They are capable of getting into overflows and powerheads, so screens are a must. Caution must be used if you are housing them with hermits. Provide plenty of spare shells. They reproduce freqently in the aquarium.

 

[Reelheel]

I don't care too much for any hermits; I've still got a few running around in my systems (mostly in the sump) but I probably won't (knowingly) get any more. I like Astrea snails, and Ceriths, but it seems as though none of them live for an extended amount of time.
I probably have 10-15 Astreas and maybe 4 or 5 ceriths in my 180g reef...probably going to add some more the next time I make an invert order.
As far as shrimp, the only ones I really like are scarlet (skunk) cleaners.
Just my .02

 

[SaltyTemple]

I like the scarlet hermits - they seem non obtrusive and neat to look at with their bright red bodies and yellow eyes. I made the mistake of getting some other ones in a mix :zebra, blue tip and red tip. I think the zebras are the grumpy ones, right away they started attacking my scarlets trying to steal their shells.. I was like HEY!

Sallylightfoot Crab - EVIL! he looks neat but tripled in size within a month and started going after my fish - he's out all of the time and people like to look at him

Emerald Crab - potentially evil as well, but I never see him so eh... my bubble algae is gone!

Margarita Snails - good

Astera Snails - good, both small and large are fun to have

 

[SaltyTemple]

Abalone - don't bother, same as a big snail but more expensive

Sand Sifting Stars - good and non-obtrusive

for good measure I'm including my tiger stripped serpent star. I THOUGHT that he was a detritus eater. Ummmm more like jawfish, clown and gobie eater... grrrrrr. He does keep the tank free of carcasses... sigh he is big though

 

[NaH2O]

Great thread! We had a couple of similar discussions before: Let's Talk About ~Snails~ and Let's Talk About ~Crabs~. I would really like to get into shrimp and stars. I'll pull up some articles, and let's figure them out.

 

[Detri]

Cool Nikki, that was my aim. I saw those threads and thought what about the cleaning crew as a whole. I was hoping by starting with the most common, snails and crabs we could get into a good descussion about stars, shrimp and fish. I want to learn more about the latter but I need to fine tune snails and crabs for sure.

I only have 4 snails total in my tank, I personally don't think a new tank, my size 30g, can sustain more than that. I have 2 Hermits in mt tank (I had a third but, killed one accidently, he got stuck to my glass scrapper and didn't let go till he got in my bucket where he died) I have 1 Red-legged, which everyone seems to like when he/she is out and about, and 1 Blue-legged, who is cool to watch scurry across the sandbed. My tank seems clean. I have few sprouts of hair algae that gets smaller at night. So far benificial to my tank.

Ron, Hobbiest in the making

 

[spongebob lover]

Nikki i'd love to hear more about shrimp and stars too.
Right now i only got turbo snails, margaritas, emerald crab and i would really really love to add a starfish even though my husband thinks they are not reef safe .
I'd love to know more about cleaner shrimp and fire shrimp and what's the difference between all of them, not the tipical ohh they mount on your fish and clean and they cost $27 bucks .. no i wish i knew more about them than just that
the same for the sea urchin because i have no clue on those too, from where i see them they look creepy and they have to many spines (whatever you call them ) but i heard they suppose to be good cleaners.

 

[Detri]

Forgot about the Urchins. Thats a good one to talk about to.

 

[SaltyTemple]

I'd like to hear about Urchins as well.

As for Shrimp:

I have three cleaner shrimp and one pepermint. The cleaners bicker an awful lot, they also seem to be greedy feeders, always trying to get food away from anything! They also "clean" my hand whenever it's in the tank which is kinda neat. My pepermint is quite elusive and only comes out at night - not very exciting but he does eat aspastia (sp?) which justifies his existence!

 

[gman0526]

Sand sifting stars are nice to have if you have your sand for aesthetic reasons only but in a DSB they'll disrupt it and will deplete microfauna necessary for overall DSB health. If you keep them in a shallow sand bed is always a plus to feed them with sinking pellets otherwise they starve, unless there's a big fish population.

Shrimps are great big scraps cleaners, it's always fun to watch my fire shrimps running all over picking up whatever scraps escaped my fish. i have a CBS and so far he's been a good citizen, i always try to spot feed him, since i don't want him to go berserk and start attacking my small fish or my corals.

 

[Krish]

Great thread Detri! I Wish I could have been the first to post here, but we won't go there(LOL). My favorite cleanup crew is me.(LOL) I like to do most of the work myself. However, the little critters do their job well in the wild so I feel that you should allow nature to give you a little helping hand in your tank...

 

[SaltyTemple]

I'm sorry CBS?

 

[gman0526]

Coral banded shrimp

 

[Pauls]

I think he means Coral Banded Shrimp. I could be wrong. Had one for a while always hid until my tiger serpant molested him during a molt and then patiently left him alone till he died. lesson learned, keep your critters fed! Even detris eaters need some supplementel feeding. Snails, shrimp and crabs included. When i had crabs (sounds so bad), i feed sinking pellets about once a week. IMO astrea and turbo's are great eaters, margeritas are ok as well. My margeritas leave a slime on the glass that is hard to remove. I would like to know more about stars and urchins.

 

[Pauls]

ok a little late with the cbs :lol: :lol:

 

[Krish]

ok a little late with the cbs

Ya think!(LOL)

 

[Pauls]

didn't ask for a comment from the peanut gallery!

 

[Krish]

didn't ask for a comment from the peanut gallery!

I'm not from the peanut gallery...Just the pest patrol!!! You have to excuse me...I am just going a bit nuts sitting at a computer finally(LOL). I don't think I can read or post fast enough!

 

[Pauls]

...I am just going a bit nuts(LOL).

And were back to the Peanuts?