Where to find a good Clean Up Crew?

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Xzibit

AC Members
Aug 20, 2004
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I was wondering if anyone could suggest some places to get a good clean up crew for my tank. I was planning to order one from saltwaterfish.com. I liked the mixes they have for around $100 it seemed like a good deal to me. 50-100gal reef package containing: Scarlet Hermits 20, Blueleg Hermits 20, Turbo/Astrea Snails 20, Nassarius Snails 5, Peppermint Shrimp 5, Emerald Crabs 5,Brittle Stars 2, and 1 Coral Banded Shrimp. But unfortunatly due to the Hurricane they are unable to take orders. My tank has been ready for the crew for over a week now and just to get something in there I went to a LFS and purchased 15 Zerbra Hermits. I would like to get the crew all in before I add any fish. I just have 2 questions after all that. Does anyone know where I may find a good mix of cleaners like that for around the same price? and Will a Coral Banded Shrip get along with a couple of cleaner shrimp? I like cleaner shrimp alot and would like some but as far as shrimp goes the CBS look kinda mean heh. Anywho thanks for you time and help.


X
 
CBS: "Unless your system is extremely large and well-equipped with numerous nooks and crannies, mixing other crabs, lobsters and shrimps is not recommended. They will seek each other out and fight/eat each other."

Zebras are the pugilists of the "reef-safe" hermits. They will probably attack other hermits and snails that you add. Bluelegs seem a little less violent with red legs less violent still and scarlets being comparatively very peaceful. Saltwaterfish actually doesn't have very well balanced cleaner packages, IMO. I used www.etropicals.com for the "build your own" package. I'd recommend mostly ceriths and astreas with 1-2 mexican turbos and a handful of nassarius snails. Keep the number of hermits down a bit, but make sure to get at least one brittle or serpent star (not the green brittle). My peppermint shrimp may have eaten some of my nassarius snails and emerald crabs can also get bad as they get older, but they are fine if you keep them well fed. You probably want less than 1/2 of your cleaners to be crabs or shrimp unless you don't mind them periodically killing each other. The package you listed was 61 crabs & shrimp to 27 other cleaners.

My 45 gallon currently has:
- 14 adult cerith snails (purchased)
- 1 adult cerith (wild on rock)
- 3+ baby ceriths (from egg hatches)
- 9 scarlet hermits
- 1 mexican turbo snail
- 5 nassarius snails (left out of 10)
- 1 emerald crab
- 1 peppermint shrimp
- numerous wild amphipods, micro-brittle stars, bristleworms, featherdusters, etc.

They keep the algae down enough that it never disappears but isn't completely taking over. (The first extreme means your critters are hunger = mean crustaceans. The second extreme means you really need more critters.) I wanted astreas, but etropicals ran out. I also run a decent skimmer, which keeps algae down. I do plan to add a few more cleaners eventually though, as my fish have been depleting amphipod populations.

www.wctropicalmarine.com and www.reeftopia.com also seem like good sites, but you are less likely to get free or pseudo-free shipping.
 
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