Can U Have Too Many Cuc

[stefday]

Hi,

I am looking to upgrade my current set up quite soon.

I am wondering if it would make sense to order some cuc from the internet whilst the new tank aclimatises before introducing the contents of my existing tank?

If so can you have to many cuc?

Thanks.

 

[Truck]

possibly as some may starve from the lack of food

 

[ben1987]

as truck said. if you have too many crabs then they wil fight for the best shells too and possibly eat the snails

 

[kj23502]

yea you can have to many. what r they gonna eat after the stuff has been eaten?

 

[Musho3210]

Yes you can have too much CUC, unless you are willing to feed them yourself.

 

[jtnova13]

it's really just a waste of money. You may get a nitrate spike from CUC dying in mass numbers if you have too many.

 

[AK77]

You can definitely over do it with regard to CUC. Especially snails. Once they have cleaned up your rocks, they will gradually begin to die off if there isn't enough food for them to maintain their numbers. If they start dying on mass, then you can very easily end up with ammonia spikes and crashing your tank. Some species of snail will sift through sand and find nourishment there, but again, if there isn't enough to sustain them, which in a new tank there wont be, they will begin to die of starvation and get eaten by your crabs. As JTNova said, its a waste of money and unneccessary too.


Hermit crabs on the other hand can be maintained by feeding them manually. I used to give mine pellet food every couple of days as a treat and I don't think I had any losses. I also purchased a variety of really pretty shells for them. It was great watching them trying them on for size lol. Again, you have to take into consideration the bioload that having a large CUC will do. Its best to stick to a standard ratio of CUC to tank size, and have a diverse selection of compatible species within that.

If you are setting up a new tank and putting in new live rock, I'd just transfer some of your existing CUC to the new tank and let them gorge themselves on the new rocks. Then, after introducing your existing rock and livestock, add to the CUC if required.