cleaning crew?

D

deesign1000

I finally have my 26 bow ready for something living(besides the sand and rock)! I am reading conflicting information about the quantity and type of snails and hermit crabs to put in. :? Live Aquaria suggests the following for a 30g.

Trochus Snail -8
Super Tongan Nassarius Snail -6
Cerith Snail -12
Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab -10

I also have a 3.5 " sand bed, so i need some good sifters and diggers. Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Nichole
 
I have had hermit crabs in my tank and i did not like them. the seem to pick on my corals when i had them. they also fight for more shells. i do not reccomend. hermit crabs for reef tanks.
 
I, on the other hand, have nothing but scarlet hermits in our 215. They do not bother any coral, primarily sps with some lps, are very docile, and do a great job of grazing. They will feed on some opportunistic escargot if a snail is on its side and can't turn over, but this is not very often. Months back an algea problem was developing, and we beefed up astreas and scarlets, and they have controlled the problem. I feel that the blue and red leg hermits are far more destructive. We added a number of astreas in a 46 gal, and it was a dinner bell for the red leg hermits.

Just another perspective to consider.
 
i think i heard somewhere that hermit crabs are not found on the reefs in the wild, but out in the sand yards away from the reefs...i think that is what i heard one day.
 
For snails this is the best formula,

Only use Astreas and Cerith snails

with a 2:1 ratio

For every 1 Astrea you need 2 Ceriths

Good Luck

Hope that made sense
 
Um. . okay why? And how come you didn't recommend narcissia (whatever) snails? They make great sand sifters, they burry under the sand and pop out during feeding time.
 
i know that when i did have Nassarius they came out of the sand in the beggining, but they started to die off. i started with about 100, and when i took the sand bed out of my tank i had about 2 left. i do not think they get enough food in tanks
 
i got my zombie snails from reeftopia.

about hermits, i like them when i do not have too many. right now i have about 10 in my 200 gallon. when i had a 100 gallon tank and over 100 hermits they just seemed to be in trouble all the time....doing bad things.
 
@Matt wrote:
[I]@larrycivic wrote:[/I][quote="i know that when i did have Nassarius they came out of the sand in the beggining said:
Did you have Illynass obsoleta or Nassarius vibex species? The super cheap black snails sold on ebay as Nassarius obsoleta are not actually Nassarius snails. They do not tend to do nearly as well in our warmer reef tanks as the Nassarius vibex snails. That would explain why they are so cheap. :wink: "]

Gee, okay I'll find out how well they do in my 66 degree tank then.
Click to expand...
 
@larrycivic wrote:
i got my zombie snails from reeftopia. said:
What kind of snail is a zombie?

I love my hermits.
I have 6 scarlets and about 7 large left handed calcinus in a 75 gal.
I recommend any calcinus sp. or the scarlets if you like crabs.

Marshall Island Blue stripe legs (Calcinus elegans)
and the same with Orange stripe legs
Hawaiian Zebra Hermits (Calcinus Seurati)
black and white stripe legs
Gold left handed hermits (Calcinus laevimanus)
Gold color legs with black & white tips & blue eye stalks

I have a few extra shells for these docile big guys.
The gold one took the hawaiian's shell away, but other than that one incidence, I have never had a problem, even while picking through my best zoos, and they live a lot longer than the blue legs or scarlets.

The Gold one is my favorite and he cracks me up. When I feed the tank he barrels off the rocks as fast as he can to get over to where I'm letting the food out. Also when I turn on the MH he comes running too. He's not shy at all, and he's not mean either. He's the only one that exibits character like this.

I got rid of an emerald crab when my clowns started getting their fins pinched, and he'd inadvertantly pick off polyps while reaching around corners. I also dont care for blue and red legs as much.
when i ordered some of those ebay snails (obseleta - welks) they found them very tasty. The calcinus didn't eat the live ones like they did.

If you don't get crabs, the white Tongan Nassarius Snails are what I would use for scavenging. They are the most active, eat meat, and sift the sand alot.
Click to expand...
 
In my wife's 20 gallon we have:

Hermits - 8
Turbo snail - 1
Astreas - 5
Cerinths - 10

While the hermits do seem to get into everything, often you will see a closed zoanthid, or polyp and they are scavinging around them,and my wife is not pleased when they crawl on her 'flowerpot' causing it close up, but they seem to be pretty goodsand sifters. The snails seem to do pretty good algae control, but you have to check the tank for guys that keep getting knocked over when they fall from the occasional rock face.

I have a ten gallon with about 15 pounds of base rock and 5 pounds of live rock to seed the base for our 2nd 75 gallon that is sitting empty in the living room, in that tank we have.

Asteras -3
Hermits - 4
Peppermint Shrimp - 2

Got the shrimps because the liverock I bought from the LFS had about 8-10 rock anemones that had been hiding until I got them in the quarantine tank. Whether they are natural or not, I have been happy with these 'cleanup crews' and they add additional life to the tanks.
 
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