Tank Cleaning crew for 55g

[Sarge]

Hi,

I was just wondering what would be some good critters to put in a 55g as a "cleaning crew". I'm gonna catch these myself right here in Puerto Rico so they have to be stuff you can find here in the Caribbean...I can get: Coral banded shrimp, I may be able to get other types of shrimp but the coral banded are the most common around here...I can get urchins like the black long-spine and slate pencil urchin...I can also get lots of types of hermit crabs and brittle sea stars. Oh and there are alot of arrow crabs around here too.

It would be great if you could make like a list of what to put in from these specimens I just mentioned and how many of each...If anyone has any ideas of other types of inverts I could try please mention them.

Thanks...

[OrionGirl]

What kind of hermits? What else will be in the tank?

CBS are territorial, and you'd be limited to either a mated pair, or a single individual. They can be aggressive towards other inverts, as well.

Urchins: I like urchins. They are algivores and detrivores, so a couple of either species will be good, as long as they are compatible with other tankmates.

Brittle stars are great cleaners, but in a 55, I'd limit it to one or 2, since they can be hard tokept fed wlel-enough to prevent prdations.

Arrow crabs tend to be more predators than cleaners.

Any snails available?

[Sarge]

Do you have to feed urchins and stars with filter feeding liquids or do they just eat bits of food and waste from the bottom of the tank?...hmm im not sure about snails but how big are they? and how many snails would u put in?..

Im not sure about the exact species of the hermits but the ones I would consider are the normal little ones you see in your LFS.

When it comes to fish..I will have a pretty small juvenile french angelfish, a royal gramma and I'm pretty sure I could catch myself a couple of blue chromis....maybe a goby?

thanks again.

[Decz]

I don't know much about urchins, but the brittle stars will pick up leftover foods from the bottom of the tank -providing you feed enough to have leftovers. There's a big difference between feeding a freshwater tank and feeding a marine tank.. In freshwater you would only feed a little pinch - just enough food that the fish eat of off the surface within a few minutes (with the exception of any pellets etc that you would drop for catfish). In marine, people tend to feed a little more than the fish can get at so that the cleaner crew can have a good meal too.

I feed frozen pacifica to my fish (little shrimps)... My fish, crabs, peppermint shrimp and especially the brittle stars LOVE this meal! Some of the mushrooms and anenomes even like it. I would assume it really just depends on the type of food that you feed.

[Crown Royal]

I love my little Blue Tuxedo Urchin. He eats coralline like there's no tomorrow though, and will occassionally knock a frag or two over. Be careful with the bigger urchins bulldozing everything.

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-11/rs/index.php

Look to the more mundane creatures such as hermits and snails. My little team of Astrea, Cerith and Nassarius snails complement each other wonderfully in processing the majority of the algae and detritus in the tank.