What is a good cleanup crew (type and numbers) for my 55 Gallon reef tank? My tank is almost done cycling and I want to make my cleanup crew one of my next purchases.
Thank you Doug
Thank you Doug
A good cleanup crew
- Thread starter airbrnebkr
- Start date
I haven't been in this for very long, so take my observations with a grain of salt.
IMO brittle serpent stars are way too food aggressive to use in a tank if you will ever have to target feed anything. I saw mine rip bits of food out of the inside of a corals mouth. The big ones are the worst- I had two that could smell food when I opened the freezer. I removed them.
I'm having second thoughts about all the hermits I have. I often see carnage within a group of them- again the largest ones are the worst. I tried to keep them well fed but they just liked eating snail meat as well as each other. I've given probably 50 of my largest ones away and I wish someone would take the rest of them.
Sea cucumbers are gross. I kept having visions of them crawling out of the tank and into my bed. I removed them.
Right now I'm loving my peppermint shrimp so much I added 4 more for a total of eight. They are as good a scavenger as the hermits but get into way less trouble.
And my snails- they are the best of all. I have nassarius, astreas, and mexican turbos- all are very well behaved.
IMO brittle serpent stars are way too food aggressive to use in a tank if you will ever have to target feed anything. I saw mine rip bits of food out of the inside of a corals mouth. The big ones are the worst- I had two that could smell food when I opened the freezer. I removed them.
I'm having second thoughts about all the hermits I have. I often see carnage within a group of them- again the largest ones are the worst. I tried to keep them well fed but they just liked eating snail meat as well as each other. I've given probably 50 of my largest ones away and I wish someone would take the rest of them.
Sea cucumbers are gross. I kept having visions of them crawling out of the tank and into my bed. I removed them.
Right now I'm loving my peppermint shrimp so much I added 4 more for a total of eight. They are as good a scavenger as the hermits but get into way less trouble.
And my snails- they are the best of all. I have nassarius, astreas, and mexican turbos- all are very well behaved.
i have about 20hermits and 13snails in my 29... i agree with teh above post... as my hermits get bigger i can see how they are mean toward eachother and a snail must have died in my tank.. but now how one of my hermits has its shell it leaves me a little uneasy seeing him cruise around in that, but they were a good clean up crew in the beginning.
My last set up I had two emerald crabs. They were incredible at ridding the tank of algae, and leaving the corals to be. Until the one just tripled in size and then it liked knocking things over. But it was a character and knew when I came to feed some plant materials.
I am going to look for emerald crabs with my new set up, going for scavengers this week as my new RSM is finishing cycling.
Also very very hardy and colorful purple, orange and white urchin, was a great cleaner. (my avatar is a picture of my newly acquired urchin with my first tank)
I am going to look for emerald crabs with my new set up, going for scavengers this week as my new RSM is finishing cycling.
Also very very hardy and colorful purple, orange and white urchin, was a great cleaner. (my avatar is a picture of my newly acquired urchin with my first tank)