Atlantic, Pacific: Stir

Debbie64

Debbie64

AC Members
Feb 1, 2005
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Hello again!

First of all, I love this place. For the wealth of information I've gotten, thank you all. :)

My 90 gal is cycled! Live rock is in, skimmer's skimming. Yay!

I'm about to get a cleaning crew and I was wondering if anyone has A) bought the cleaner packages from eTropicals and B) if anyone has thoughts about getting an "all Caribbean" cleaning crew and getting everything else - fish, corals and other inverts - that are largely from the Pacific and thereabouts. The crew, to be specific, is the 90 gal deluxe reef cleaner which includes scarlet reef and dwarf blue leg hermits, peppermint shrimps, nassarius and astraea turbo snails, emerald crabs and aquacultured queen conchs.

I'm planning on a few moderate light/current LPS plus false perculas, a blue tang, a blenny, gobies, etc. Also scarlet skunk cleaners, a fire shrimp and assorted detrivores.

Thoughts?

Debbie
 
A queen conch can get to 12" in a 1 year span and can achieve up to 16" shell diameter, with enough algae they will increase thier shell size by 1" per month, and requires around around 1-2 square feet of open algae coverd sand per inch of shell length (they move by a lurching or jumping motion rather then crawling like the more common snail times). However a Queen conch will eat Cyano. Aquacultured Queen Conchs are juviniles around 1-2" in length when sold by many stores and LFS, but they will grow to be monsters assuming they dont die first.
 
Haven't done eTropicals' crew, but similar packages have worked well for me. As far as the mix, many of us have animals from all over in the tanks and nobody seems to mind. My rock brought in a lot of species from the gulf, the cleanup crew is a mix of Caribbean, Gulf and Pacific Species, my corals are a similar mix, and my fish are from the western Pacific.

The idea of doing a biotope style tank, where all the species are from the same area, sounds good to me, but I don't think most people do it. If you are interested in a cleanup crew that is purely Pacific, you might check out IPSF. It will cost a lot, though.
 
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Thanks to both of you for the replies. I'll look into Indo-Pacific, mogurnda. Thank you. I'm also looking at LiveAquaria, MarineDepot and possibly TBS since all the rock talk is so positive.

Gealcath - Yikes - thank you very much for mentioning that about the queen conchs. I'm trying very hard to look at the max growth size of everything I get. I want all my critters to grow INTO the tank, not out of it.

I was happy with that crew price, but if they don't make substitutions, I'll have to go elsewhere and spend more. Though, I guess after all I've spent so far, what's a few more bucks? :thud:

Thanks again!
 
The only caveat I would add in mixing is that if you get any predatory corals (or anenomes, though I don't encourage them), be careful. Fish recognize predators from their own environment, and frequently don't recognize a predatory coral from another part of the world. Carpet anenomes are probably the most frequent 'problem', and some fish will learn to avoid the predator if their first encounter is not fatal (ie, a stinging coral).
 
OrionGirl said:
The only caveat I would add in mixing is that if you get any predatory corals (or anenomes, though I don't encourage them), be careful. Fish recognize predators from their own environment, and frequently don't recognize a predatory coral from another part of the world.
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Excellent point, thanks. I'm not planning on anemones, but I'll keep it in mind when I'm picking out corals.

After thinking about it, I believe I'll go ahead and get the package from eTropicals. I can always trade/sell/give the conchs to my LFS. :D
 
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