Cleaning Crew Poll

[chull13]

Linda has sparked my interest with her recent threads about "CRABS". So here is a question: What does your cleaning crew consist of?

 

[glxtrix]

Nothing but snails. I refuse to put crabs in my tank....unless they are acro crabs....those don't cause any harm. Oh and of course my many tangs

 

[flyingarmy]

Inverts..diversity is best!

 

[george]

Snails and crabs, but skip the blue legs and opt for mexican reds. Blue legs will kill your snails for shells. Also, diversify the snails and get something in addition to just turbos.

 

[humptrax]

turbos, astreas, nassarius, cerith, and mini turbos for snails.

i added 1 fighting conch (haven't seen it since i got it... btw, thanks Jin!)

1 tiger banded serpent star
1 black brittle star

i like the stars for diversity. just don't get the green brittle star that you'll see at LFS. although they're listed as "reef safe" most of the time, they're really carnivores. i hear the bigger ones will eat anything they can get their arms around.

 

[soarin']

I have a few blue-legs left, but I refuse to buy any more -- they are just little gangsters, and end up killing each other.

I am mostly focusing on snails -- the little nassarius snails are fast at getting to anything that needs "cleaning up" and they are starving out the bristle worms. The bristle worms can get dangerous when they are larger (I had one eat a peppermint shrimp once, I was really annoyed -- and the pepp was doing just fine before he got eaten)

I think it would be cool to get a brittle or serpent star, especially one of those "harlequin" looking ones, or the ruby variety.

I would also like to get more of the smaller serpent stars -- I think they look really cool.

Edit: I did just get a couple of lettuce "nudibranchs" (sea slugs) -- I don't think they eat too much algae but they look cool

 

[mfliin]

Snails and Tangs! Oh and a tiger cucumber and serpent sea stars....darn I guess I need to change my vote. I voted tangs, tangs, tangs....but now that I think of it, it seems that I have everything- Is there anyway to change my vote?

 

[humptrax]

Soarin';154297 wrote: bristle worms can get dangerous when they are larger (I had one eat a peppermint shrimp once, I was really annoyed -- and the pepp was doing just fine before he got eaten)

i think bristleworms get a really bad rep. as long as you have the right ones, they're nocturnal scavengers.

what color was the worm?

 

[raisingtwo2006]

I've got a few snails left, and I think about 2 crabs.. an emerald crab that I never see, and a little red leg one..
I have a fighting conch that keeps the sand fairly stirred when he feels like moving at all, and some kind of starfish that doesn't do anything but eat the leftover krill and pellets that float by him.

 

[reefknight]

Mine has cerith, astrea, turbo and nassarius snails. Blue legs and scarlett reef hermits, a mithrax crab. A cleaner shrimp ,3 peppermint shrimp and a fighting conch. Diversity is best IMO, but I can see where some do not like the blue legs as they can be little thugs and "jack" up a crab for a shell or two.

 

[mapleredta]

humptrax;154329 wrote: i think bristleworms get a really bad rep. as long as you have the right ones, they're nocturnal scavengers.

what color was the worm?

couldnt agree more, if the bristleworm ate the shrimp its probably because it was already dead.

 

[soarin']

humptrax;154329 wrote: i think bristleworms get a really bad rep. as long as you have the right ones, they're nocturnal scavengers.

what color was the worm?

It was your standard orange with darker stuff halfway down. It had been fine before, but was getting a little too big. I captured it and checked it out, and it looked just like the standard bristleworm (I have a few of them). But this one had gotten as big as the pepp, and had started stealing food from it.

I actually thought it was funny at the time -- the worm lived in a hole in the "ceiling" of the cave, and the pepp would grab clam that i put in there and retreat to the ceiling (right near the hole). The worm would then come out of the hole, grab the clam, and pull it into the hole. No big deal, right?


I didn't feed the tank for a few days since the pepp had started ignoring the clam bits I put in, and the pepp had gotten used the to the tank and was getting 'cocky' -- doing cartwheels around the tank, etc. I saw the worm coming out of the hole looking for food, but I didn't think much of it because the pepp was getting what he wanted from all the inverts in the tank, it looked like. Then the pepp molted, all was cool, but then the next morning at 5 am I look in the tank, and guess who was getting pulled into the worm hole? The shrimp was dead by that time, and was getting pulled into the hole. The body never had a chance to hit the ground -- it was consumed by worms before 5 that afternoon. The hole was right at the shrimp's resting place at the top of the cave, so he must have just grabbed the shrimp when it wasn't aware, and was able to get it because it had just molted. If the shrimp had actually died first, the worm would have had to go down to the ground to eat it, and wouldn't have been able to pull it up to the cave. I quit feeding the tank and the worm started getting really desperate for food, running all around the tank, so I got a turkey baster and put clam in it -- the worm ran up into the baster and I pulled him out. Still have him in a little tupperware container.

I was astonished and pretty upset over my cool new shrimp (I was just starting out) , but when I started googling it, I saw that lots of others had the same experience. When you're a small worm, you have to take what you can get. But when you get bigger, you can make your own food.

Now that I know better, I am focusing on "size-limited" janitor types.

 

[jamos5790]

I have snails and 1 crab...

to whom stated about the green brittles, I bought 1 a long time ago and it was really small, but it got LARGE and I was like kool and I could hand feed it frozen stuff and then my fish started missing, I was like WTF no dead fish no skeleton no nothing. I couldnt figure out what was going on, until one night I was passing by and heard somethign so the flashlight police came out and found my star eating the last of the3 MIA firefish, needless to say he went to the LFS the next day

 

[ralph atl]

top crown snails, zebra turbo, mexican turbo, cerith, nassarius & a few others. 2 hermits & peppermint shrimp

I keep a emerald mithrix & snails in my fuges.

 

[jdabs]

I have snails and crabs. When I first started I got some crabs from one of the big box stores not knowing that they would wreak havoc on everything! They got changed out for some smaller ones just to help keep things clean. The snails do a great job though!

 

[zdaytonaroadster]

pryamid snails, nassarius snails, one conch snail, blue leg hermits, scarlet hermits and a sand sifting star. I've lost one pryamid snail to the blue legs, but everything else is happy

 

[james s_]

Where is the best place to buy CUC in bulk?

 

[sj miller guy]

I like a mixture since most of the creatures go after different things.

tangs
nas. snails
turbo snails
astrea snails
sea cucumber
coral banded shrimp
scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp
blue hermit crabs
red hermit crabs
sand sifting sea star
green mithrax crabs


I find mixing up what I have adds a little diversity as well as makes things a little more interesting to watch.

 

[weaglereefer]

James S.;269804 wrote: Where is the best place to buy CUC in bulk?

There is a seller on eBay "piece-of-the-reef" that seems to have good prices, and the shipping deal looks good as well.

 

[stickx911]

http://cgi.ebay.com/natural-SKIMMER-CLEAN-UP-CREW-saltwater-aquarium_W0QQitemZ140292329229QQihZ004QQcategoryZ3212QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem">http://cgi.ebay.com/natural-SKIMMER-CLEAN-UP-CREW-saltwater-aquarium_W0QQitemZ140292329229QQihZ004QQcategoryZ3212QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem</a>

thats a cool storage room (pool)!