The Cleanup Crew

[realhiphop]

I know there are a string of threads discussing this, but I was wondering what you guys think as far as experience would work the best for a 20L tank? What is the difference between scarlet hermits and blue legged?

[Mr_Spam]

with a 20l i would recomend a little of every thing in terms of common reef snails and hermits.

[Christopher Marks]

You may want to check out the nano reef critters article, www.nano-reef.com/articles

 

For your 20 gallon tank, I would recommend about 15 snails (12 astrea, and 3 nerite snails) or something similar. Then for crabs, I would get only about 5 or so tiny blue leg hermits.

[NaNO ReeFiN]

Go for a mixture of hermits. I currently have a blue leg, red leg, scarlet, and zebra in my 7 gal. Each one has their own personality which makes for better entertainment in the tank.

[Crakeur]

remeber that hermits will go after snails for their shells. I have a few red legs and a few blue legs and a few scarlets in my tank, some tiny sand bed snails that seem to be in full spawn mode (many on the glass this week) and one very large turbo snail that is way too big (came in a package of stuff that I bought).

 

check out any livestock website and they all have a clean-up crew of some sort. They also usually make recommendations for tank size. I would avoid emerald crabs as they can get kind of large and they tend to do a little aquascaping of their own as they increase in size (as do hermits but they are easier to control). you may also want to check out ipsf.com for some of their sand bed critters as they too will help keep the tank clean.

[Sahin]

Get a mixture of different snails--Astreas are real hard and efficient workers in my tank.

 

As for Hermits, I prefer the smaller blue legged hermits than the larger scarlet hermits. My Blue legged work quite well, but the scarlets, I dont see much often.

[NaNO ReeFiN]

And make sure there's plenty of shells in the tank or the hermits will go after your snails shells like Crakeur said.

[Gilman]

Yeah extra shells NaNO ReeFiN!! I read about getting extra shells, so I asked the LFS about getting some. After much prodding they gave us 5-6 different shaped/sized shells for our 5 Blue Legged hermits. So far our 3 Astrea Snails are still alive along with now countless Stomatella Snails which dont really have a shell that a hermit could possibly want. One of the hermits immediately changed shells upon their introduction to the tank and has since changed again. Save your snails, get extra shells!

 

Gil

[NaNO ReeFiN]

Haha, that sounds like a good slogan Gilman... "Save your snails, get extra shells!" lol