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Coral Vue Hydros

Recommended clean-up crew


jdiver

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Could someone please recommend an appropriate clean-up crew for my AGA Mini-Bow 7 nano? Jeff's Exotic Fish (exoticfish.com) has a clean-up crew package for a 10 gallon that consists of 3 Scarlet Reef hermit crabs, 3 Left-Handed hermit crabs, 3 Blue Leg hermit crabs, 3 Margarita Snails, and 3 Astrea Snails. Would this need to be scaled down for a 7? (I am the type of person who would rather have many small critters in a tank, as opposed to a couple of larger critters, if that is at all a consideration with this.) TIA.

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well i am one of thos epeople that likes to start off with a few and continue to add slowly so i can make sure everyone gets there dinner. i also do not like hermits very much. i try and get mostly snails. in my tank right now i have 1 jewel snail, 5 astreas, 3 bumblebees and s couple nassarius. i am adding some more though. im going to try and find some margaritas and cerith for my tank.

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printerdown01

I'm in line with SLO on this one... especially since you said you like small critters...  Hermits will eat anything they can put in their mouths. In large tanks this isn't a problem since they cannot fit anything of grave importance into their mouths. I'm also a big fan of diversity. I would recommend a mixture of nassarius, ceriths, and SMALL astreas. This will ensure that you will have a variety of appetites in the tank (different algaes will be consumed). I would recommend less than the traditional 1 snail per gallon. I have a 12 gallon and have 6 snails which do the job quite nicely! If you get a bumble bee I would consider it a creature that is there purely for amusement... so far (as far as I am aware) there is no evidence (even scientific evidence) that these guys will eat algae... One theory actually suggests that they hunt worms or worm larve in the sand (not sure how true this is either)... I have to admit though, that they do look really neat (and might consume ditritus [not proven either]). I might get a couple just for the heck of it...

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the bublebees have cleaned detritus in my tanks however the amount is not much....they are so small that it is hard for them to really do anything of any importance.

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I agree with them both :)

 

My Astrea snails work way harder than the hermits.

They are much better cleaners too.

 

The little blue legged hermits dont make much of a diffreance to work force.  The red-legged though they are bigger, they are lazy buggers.

 

My snails clean everywhere, sand, walls, powerhead, rocks etc etc.

 

I too have a variety, and some of these tend to do more cleaning during the day than others, so I got a 24hours workforce.

 

Varitey and diversity means each species will likely carry out a different set of jobs, so this is very useful.

 

SLO and Printer have given a good account of what to go for.

 

:)

 

 

(Edited by Sahin at 7:14 pm on June 9, 2002)

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Thanks for the replies. I was kind of surprised that no one seemed really keen on having hermits be a part of the clean-up crew, since every clean-up crew package I've ever seen has a bunch of them included. I was thinking of getting 4 snails, and like how bumble-bee snails look, so maybe 1 of those just for looks as suggested. Thanks again.

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Bumble bee snails have similiar feeding behaviors to the nassarius snails. They will track down any left over food and swarm over it. Iv also noticed they do a great job on cleaning out shrimp molts.

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printerdown01

Very cool, thanks for the info Fant!! -I have just been told over and over again that no one knows what they eat, lol. If they track down molts and left over food, then they obviously eat decaying stuff -very handy. I am deff going to try to pick a couple up soon just to see what they do.

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I'm a big fan of hermits. All of my snails pretty much stick to the rock and glass and rarely touch the sand. The hermits clean everywhere and fit into much tighter spaces and crevasses than the snails do.

I have an assortment of Turbo, Margarita and Periwinkle snails and Red and Blue Hermits. Personally I don't really like the Astrea snails as they kept falling off stuff, landing upside down and drowning as they can't tip themselves over like other snails can.

 

Hope this helps

Dan

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printerdown01

I'm def not against hermits... I have them in my tank. However, I also believe that there is a darker side to keeping hermits, since they eat anything. Also as the tank gets smaller typically so do the tanks inhabitants... The smaller things get in the tank the easier they are for the hermit to stick them in their mouths. Since he stressed that he wanted to keep lots of TINY critters I wouldn't recommend something that eats tiny critters, lol. But I def think hermits have a place in my tank!! That might change if my fish ever moves out, as I will then pick up some sexy shrimp -tiny critters (I love the little guys).

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if it's little critters you want, you can also hit www.ipsf.com and buy some of their detritus clams, ministars, worms, seabunnies etc.. for the sand bed.  I used them for my sand bed and the tank is clean and things are doing real well (knocking on wood as I type this).  check the member's tanks for a pic of my tank.

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Thanks for the additional replies. When I mentioned that I would rather have many small critters as opposed to a couple larger ones, I had little hermit crabs in mind as being the littlest of the creatures in my tank (not including things like worms and pods of course). I think I will go with an assortment of snails (does 5 sound good for a 7 gallon?), and 3-5 hermits as well. The ministars sound like they would be neat as well, but would they be ok with the hermits? (Printerdown has me paranoid now with talk of the hermit crab dark side. LOL!)

 

Would a shrimp(s) be compatible, and if so, what kind would be best? Thanks again.

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hermits are kewl like critters that you dont need to worry about much compared to snails. all you need to do is drop in empty shells into the tank for the hermits. while snails on the other hand is been gettin to me since i have to keep constant watch over them. once they fall over and cant get back up. actually one they fall, its over unless you step in to flip them over.

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ministars should be ok, they tend to stay in the sand, as do most of the critters sold at IPSF.  Their site has a ton of good stuff and they like to throw in a freebie with orders over a certain amount.   My last order netted me some nice xenia frags that, unfortunately, floated somewhere in the back of my tank and may or may not still be alive.

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