Cleaners

Xzibit

AC Members
Aug 20, 2004
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I just got my cleaners today and the package I got came with 7 Mexican Turbo snails. How big do these things get? One that I got was the size of a golf ball the rest were a little small the smallest being half that. They are some scary snails heh.


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My one mexican turbo is almost the size of two golf balls side by side. He once climbed onto the back of one of my cerith snails on the glass to clean its shell. I was terrified that the cerith was going to be ripped right out of its shell from the weight.
 
Do you think 7 is to many? I have 120 gallon tank. The other cleaners were: 10 Nassarius, 20 Astrea, 10 Margarita, 13 Cerith, 15 blue leg Hermits, 4 emerald crabs, 1 Black Brittle Star, 2 Cleaner Shrimp, 4 Peppermint Shrimp (only 3 made the trip though), and 1 White Sandsifting Star. Before I got them I got 14 Zebra Hermits from a LFS. I would also like to get 5-10 Scarlet hermits for the color. Thanks for any Imput.

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With 29 war-hermits, you'll probably lose a few hermits and snails anyway, so it should be fine. ;) A good rule of thumb for mexican turbos seems to be 1 per 20 gallons to keep them happy, but if you have strong lights, you'll grow enough algae. If your tank starts to get completely algae free, feed some nori to the tank. Keep in mind that the peppermints and nassarius do not thrive on algae, they'll need meat.
 
That was my next question actually. What and how much should I feed them? I am not sure what the starfish eat either I know it said left overs but shouldnt they be fed something to supliment thier diet? I know the cleaner shrimp in the nano likes flake food and brine shrimp. But that tank is small so he is able to get some. What should I feed the larger tank. My lfs has krill and some other frozen products, but there are 5 or 6 shops near me I can try to look around if you have something to recomend. Thanks again for the help.
 
The shrimp, hermits, and nassarius will take any marine meats they can get. They aren't picky. Deli shrimp will work, too. If you use frozen stuff, let it thaw first (a mistake I've made...).

As to how much, whatever they seem to grab. They don't need to be fed every single day, and some critters are greedier than others. I'd start out by putting enough chunks of meat that you see all the shrimp get something, then get some food down to the sand for the nassarius. I didn't feed enough and my peppermint ate several of my nassarius snails.

Research the sea stars, but until then, dice some meat and put it right next to the starfish. Generally, sand-sifting stars naturally eat the inhabitants of your livesand (worms, 'pods, etc.). ;)
 
It depends on the type of sea star, some like chocolate chip will eat ANYTHING they can get, snails (big favorate), bottom dwelling fish fish, corals, some crabs and shimp, clams (another big favorate), worms. While other types eat whatever is in your sand bed.
 
Both of my Cleaner Shrimp have now molted. I was wondering if I need to remove the discarded shell from the tank or not? Its in a hard to reach spot the first one just disappeared. Thanks for the info.

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