ReefCleaners- great deal!

[Tired]

I've gotten two orders of things in from ReefCleaners in the past couple of months.

 

The first order, my critters (hermits, dwarf ceriths, nerites, and a limpet) all arrived alive. The limpet never perked up, and I eventually found its empty shell in the sandbed. But, considering I got literally 50 critters in my dwarf cerith bag, less than 2% of my order arrived dead. I ordered 8 dwarf ceriths, and I got about 50 of those, 2 peanut worms in cerith shells, a hermit in a cerith snail, and 3ish dwarf planaxis snails. Therein lies my only complaint- that's too many things! I had to give most of the ceriths to my LFS. Extras are one thing, but 7 times more animals than I ordered is slightly too many animals. It's a very small complaint, though. The fire fern in that order was bigger than expected, and seems clean enough. It has some sponges on it, which is cool. 

 

The second order, I only got three things. Two scarlet reef hermits, and a micro decorator crab. I love them. Perfectly healthy, perfectly happy, nice and lively. 

 

I"ve ordered empty shells both times, and got shells in the size range I requested, as well as more shells than I ordered. 

 

Everything came in on time, I got text updates like I requested, and the prices (including shipping) are amazing. Literally my only complaint is "I got too many snails". And I got a crab I didn't know existed until I read about it on the site, for literally $5, so I'm delighted.

[MoJal]

🤣 I'm sitting here trying to figure out how all these tiny snails are going to find enough to eat in my very new, very lightly stocked (currently) tank.

[Tired]

Yeah, that's exactly my complaint. I think you've got a couple dwarf planaxis also, and it looks like some nassarius, not sure if you got those on purpose. I mean, it's hardly the worst problem to have! But it's a lot of snails.

 

Your LFS will probably take them. If not, I'd offer them to any reefers in your area who will take them, I'm sure someone would happily come pick the extras up from you. And if you anticipate needing that many snails in the future, you can always just try and feed them. I'm sure they'd appreciate bits of veggies like people give tadpoles, and they'll likely eat the detritus resulting from feeding.

Your tank is VERY white! Time to start growing your algae in.

[MoJal]

5 minutes ago, Tired said:

Yeah, that's exactly my complaint. I think you've got a couple dwarf planaxis also, and it looks like some nassarius, not sure if you got those on purpose. I mean, it's hardly the worst problem to have! But it's a lot of snails.

 

Your LFS will probably take them. If not, I'd offer them to any reefers in your area who will take them, I'm sure someone would happily come pick the extras up from you. And if you anticipate needing that many snails in the future, you can always just try and feed them. I'm sure they'd appreciate bits of veggies like people give tadpoles, and they'll likely eat the detritus resulting from feeding.

Your tank is VERY white! Time to start growing your algae in.

Might have to take some to the LFS, can't really imagine needing this many in the near future. 🤔 And yes, super white still. Had a bunch of brownish stuff a week ago, but it seems to have taken care of itself... Just little bits of green now. Have been considering getting a small live rock from the LFS to introduce more bio-diversity, but worry I'm way too inexperienced to notice any pests before they get out of hand. 

[Tired]

You can get rubble and look it over. The big concerns would be aiptasia and hair algae, which are pretty easy to spot, and can easily be dealt with if you just get a couple on rubble by mistake. Or, heck, shells from the tank, some sand, or some snails that have algae growing on them. 

[MoJal]

2 minutes ago, Tired said:

You can get rubble and look it over. The big concerns would be aiptasia and hair algae, which are pretty easy to spot, and can easily be dealt with if you just get a couple on rubble by mistake. Or, heck, shells from the tank, some sand, or some snails that have algae growing on them. 

Good thoughts, and the excessive number of snails gives me an excuse to go in this weekend to see what they might have for me to snag. 🤣 Alright, I've been googling, but your going to have to describe planaxis snails to me. I really can't figure out how to tell snails apart. They all look the same to me. Is it these lighter colored ones? (I put all my new friends in a specimen container before dumping them in the tank and then decided to just sink the container rather than trying to remove all the tiny snails, in case your wondering what's happening in this pic. )

[Tired]

Those lighter ones with snouts look like nassarius, or however it's spelled. Burrowing sand snails that primarily eat dead stuff and fish food instead of algae, because they have tube mouths (not the tube you see, that one's their Smelling Periscope) to eat instead of rasping mouths. Planaxis snail are listed on ReefCleaners, and are tiny things with brown fronts and white tips on the shell. Basically a smaller dwarf cerith. They're a bit wider than the ceriths, as well. The differences are negligible as far as care and behavior.

[MoJal]

17 minutes ago, Tired said:

Those lighter ones with snouts look like nassarius, or however it's spelled. Burrowing sand snails that primarily eat dead stuff and fish food instead of algae, because they have tube mouths (not the tube you see, that one's their Smelling Periscope) to eat instead of rasping mouths. Planaxis snail are listed on ReefCleaners, and are tiny things with brown fronts and white tips on the shell. Basically a smaller dwarf cerith. They're a bit wider than the ceriths, as well. The differences are negligible as far as care and behavior.

Ah, you're right, that is the nassarius. Will have to take a closer look in the morning to see if I can spot which ones might be planaxis. So many snails. 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

10 hours ago, Tired said:

I've gotten two orders of things in from ReefCleaners in the past couple of months.

 

The first order, my critters (hermits, dwarf ceriths, nerites, and a limpet) all arrived alive. The limpet never perked up, and I eventually found its empty shell in the sandbed. But, considering I got literally 50 critters in my dwarf cerith bag, less than 2% of my order arrived dead. I ordered 8 dwarf ceriths, and I got about 50 of those, 2 peanut worms in cerith shells, a hermit in a cerith snail, and 3ish dwarf planaxis snails. Therein lies my only complaint- that's too many things! I had to give most of the ceriths to my LFS. Extras are one thing, but 7 times more animals than I ordered is slightly too many animals. It's a very small complaint, though. The fire fern in that order was bigger than expected, and seems clean enough. It has some sponges on it, which is cool. 

 

The second order, I only got three things. Two scarlet reef hermits, and a micro decorator crab. I love them. Perfectly healthy, perfectly happy, nice and lively. 

 

I"ve ordered empty shells both times, and got shells in the size range I requested, as well as more shells than I ordered. 

 

Everything came in on time, I got text updates like I requested, and the prices (including shipping) are amazing. Literally my only complaint is "I got too many snails". And I got a crab I didn't know existed until I read about it on the site, for literally $5, so I'm delighted.

Hey tired, what’s the crab that you got? I always love to see new crabs that people get for their tanks. Is he on your tank journal?

[Tired]

(didn't see this until now)

 

The micro decorator crab is in my journal, yes, and in a thread of its own.