Cleaner Crew

[Altohombre]

where do you guys usually buy your cleaner crew's from. My tank started cycling Friday the 18th and I am trying to keep busy by figuring out where to get my hermits and such from.

 

[yote]

I usually get mine from the LFS.I just cant see paying $30.00 in shipping for $20.00 worth of clean up critters.

 

[Altohombre]

what would you recommend getting for a 46 gallon tank. It is newly cycling with no fish atm.

 

[yote]

The best bet,IMO.
Start with 5 or 6 astrea snails,3 or 4 trochus snails,and one or 2 turbo snails.
You dont want to add to many at once because they'll end up starving if theres nothing for them to eat.And wait till your cycles done too.

 

[Altohombre]

so now hermit crabs? Aren't they more fun to watch?

 

[Piggy]

Hermit crabs are a pain in the butt. They kill your snails for their shells. Plus they crawl all over your corals and pisses them off. But it's your decision.

 

[reeffreak]

They are annoying,pretty much what Piggy said.

 

[Altohombre]

If I don't have corals would they be less annoying?

 

[Doc]

if you do want to go with crabs, try the blue leg variety. they tend to be a bit more docile.

-Doc

 

[Bifferwine]

I, like Piggy, would skip the hermits. They kill the snails. They kinda suck.

 

[Marke86]

What about the brittle star fish? I heard they are excellent cleaners.
Or maybe a blenny.

 

[Doc]

brittle stars are OK but they may snack on small fish. Serpetn stars are the best way to go IMHO

-Doc

 

[Altohombre]

Thank you so much for your replies. So if I go mainly with snails according to the Doc I should start with around 20. Is this because it is a new tank and there is not much algae for them to eat at this point? I have seen calculaters suggest close to 1.5 or 2 snails per gallon which would make me at around 80ish, but I don't know if this is in defense of algae outbursts. 80 snails even if they are small seem like a ton to have in a tank.

 

[reeffreak]

Let your algae be your guide.Not only on how much but what kind of a clean-up crew.If you have fish then its would be good to have scavengers like nassarius snails.Mexican turbos if you have hair algae.Astreas,Trochus for diatoms,so on and so on.You get the point,right?Start with just a few like Doc mentioned then add more later if needed.

 

[Doc]

I think that adding 1 per gallon is just too many. add a few at a time - even start with 10 of varied types and see what your tank looks like. if there is consistent algae, you need to add more. only add 203 at a time or you will have die off which will effect the water parameters. Many fish stores try to sell packages that are just too big for most tanks starting out

-Doc