Cleanup Crew Advice

[DSparks]

Specs:

10 gallon glass

15 #'s LR

20#'s LS

 

The LFS had a package that consisted of:

5 Turbo Snails

15 Mini-Hermits (very small)

1 Brittle Star

1 Conch Snail

1 Emerald Crab

Cluster of Small Feather/Fan Worms

 

This seemed like a lot for a 10 gallon. The LFS guy said it was a good amount for my tank. The kicker is that to buy less critters seperately came out to be more than the package price. Long story short I went ahead and bought the package. It's been fun to watch all these critters, but I'm wondering if it will be too much in the long run. Those turbo snails remind me of little dozers. Your thoughts?

[Aiptasia]

Way too few snails and way too many hermit crabs. Go with:

 

1 snail per gallon

1 mexican red legged hermit crab per 2 gallons

2 juvenile white brittlestars (quarter to half dollar size)

 

no conch

no emerald crab

no feather dusters

 

Conches are usually way too big for nano-tanks. They do dig through the sand, but the brittlestars and the hitchhiking life on the LR will also populate the sand. The emerald crabs eat valonia (bubble) algae, which grow in clusters and look like a metallic green cluser of grapes. Don't get an emerald crab unless you have a valonia problem.

 

Turbo snails are good algae grazers, but they're usually large and can knock over rockwork and corals as they go. Astrea tectum snails are o.k. but usually don't live that long and are easy prey for hermit crabs.

 

I like to see more variety in snails (ceriths, narcissus), so if your LFS doesn't carry anything but Astrea and Turbos, ask them to get some. If they won't, check out www.garf.org.. They can overnight you these smaller, longer lived snails. Their reef janitor packs have four species of snails in them.

 

Also, hermit crabs are not to be trusted around snails and even corals. What you want are ultra small, docile hermit crab species. I recommend true mexican red legged hermits over blue leggeds and other species. They are ultra teeny, very active and are relatively non-aggressive towards snails as big or larger than themselves. They hungrily graze tuft and macro algaes, keeping them under control. The bigger hermits also have a tendency to knock over corals as well as eat snails.

 

Provide all hermits with a handful of larger shell choices for them to "upgrade" into without having to kill a snail for a new home. I've seen all kinds of hermit crabs rip snails from their shell just to have a new home, and at $3.50 a pop for some snails, little 99 cent shells are cheaper.

 

Even so, you'll lose some snails due to natural causes (some will also accidentally crawl out of the tank), so plan on re-stocking your tank every six months with a few new snails.

[DSparks]

Great advice. I may have to offer up some critters to other locals.