Narite snails being eaten!?

[coachfraley]

I have a problem with my CUC.

 

I started out with 3 narite snails, 3 nassarius snails, and 2 dwarf red tip hermits. Over the past few days, I have lost 2 of my narites.

 

I haven't seen any hitchhikers in my rock other than a 4-5" bristleworm and some peanut worms, so I am starting to suspect the hermits as the culprits. If this is indeed the case, I would be willing to take them back to the LFS, but I would need to pick up something else to pick up the slack (the red tips have been cleaning my LR like crazy). What are some of my options:

 

1. Do some people go with a snail only CUC?

2. Would a scarlet hermit be a better choice than the dwarfs?

3. If decided against 1 and 2, would an emerald green crab be ok (I really like the way they look).

 

In case you were wondering...My tank is a 12g cube. I plan on having a pair of Ocellaris Clownfish and a Red Headed Goby. It will be a FOWLR tank (at least for a while).

 

Thanks in advance for the help!

[eklikewhoa]

All I have in my NC12g is 1 nerite, 1 astrea and 2 cerith.

[clownfish_5]

i have one scarlet hermit and a turbo snail and they clean up GREAT!!!!!

[shroomhead]

My Blue Legs love Nerite Snails. I started out with like 13 (free) and they have killed about 6 over a month. Doesn't really bother me though but they can and will take a lot of small snails. Interestingly though they like to kill the Nerites with black shells but not the ones with ligther shells, natural selection? PERHAPS!

[Reef Gator]

Trade your red tips for scarlets. Emerald crabs are "hit and miss", but I wouldn't trust one with a small goby.

[c est ma]

Scarlets or "Mexican red-legs" if you can find them.

 

Yes, many have snail-only CUC's, but IME, with the above two spp, one can have both. The hermits are not only constantly in action, they are adorable and fascinating to watch. I do not see my snails cleaning the gunk in my zoa, gsp, etc. patches the way the hermits do.

 

--Diane

[davenia7]

After I had a murdering scarlet leg go through my snail residents like some type of serial killer... I took him back to the LFS and went hermit-less for about 2 months... in the end, I broke down and got some more hermits... the cyano and diatom on the sand bed made me crazy... they just turn it better than the snails do... also, they run all over the rocks and take care of stuff that has gotten caught on the rocks...

so, my take... snails are cheaper than a buncha chemical solutions to GHA and cyano.... so keep the hermits and buy some more snails.

Even better if you can get yours to reproduce like some of mine are now.