Clean Up Crew?

[Crazy fishes]

I am wondering which way to go with regards a clean up crew? Snails, crabs and shrimps so much diversity but limited funds. How have others choosen?

Joe.

 

[dilbert]

Most people buy all together and often in greater numbers.

I have a contrary view as at least most of these critters are omnivorous and can harm others.

Herbivorous snails:
Mostly Astra/Turbo algae eating snails.
I like to watch them but they surely don't have the brains to systematically clean your glass. Mine is about half of the time on the live rock what I don't mind but cleaning the glass is mostly my job.
At least never doesn't molest other creatures.

Detritus eating snails:
Mostly Nassarius snails.
Moves much on the sand and feeds on left over and detritus. Removing this on your own is much more diificult (vacuuming the sand bed).
Some reports are about attacking herbivorous snails.

Crabs:
Mostly Hermit and Emerald crabs.
Some like them and call them peaceful and others call them reef terrorists. Most are omnivorous and eat algae and detritus.
Can become aggressive overall if too much in too small territories, lack of shells and food.

Shrimps:
Only the cleaner shrimps are relatively peaceful. Overall different species often incompatible.
Many eat algae and left over food. But in my opinion do crabs and Nassarius snails a better job. Maybe fun to watch.

Bristleworms:
Different species and different opinons about them. Most people say harmless detritus eaters.

I wouldn't buy too much of any of them at the beginning. If you will get the usual brown algae outbreak that will last only for a few weeks. Cynaobacteria aren't eaten by most of them.

In my view, a functioning nutrients export is more important. This can be achieved by a skimmer, more frequent water changes, nitrate/phosphate removers, Chaetomrpha algae, etc.

All left over food and detritus can get eaten by detritus eaters but even they will left faeces that finally get broken up by bacteria that produce amonia from that. No much different from decomposing the left over food directly by bacteria from the beginning.

Cleaning algae from the glass can be done easily by hand. On locations were the live rock is too near to the glass neither a snail nor you will be able to clean it.

Cleaning algae from live rock is something very difficult for a human and there might be a need for cleaners.

 

[Crazy fishes]

Most people buy all together and often in greater numbers.

I have a contrary view as at least most of these critters are omnivorous and can harm others.

Herbivorous snails:
Mostly Astra/Turbo algae eating snails.
I like to watch them but they surely don't have the brains to systematically clean your glass. Mine is about half of the time on the live rock what I don't mind but cleaning the glass is mostly my job.
At least never doesn't molest other creatures.

Detritus eating snails:
Mostly Nassarius snails.
Moves much on the sand and feeds on left over and detritus. Removing this on your own is much more diificult (vacuuming the sand bed).
Some reports are about attacking herbivorous snails.

Crabs:
Mostly Hermit and Emerald crabs.
Some like them and call them peaceful and others call them reef terrorists. Most are omnivorous and eat algae and detritus.
Can become aggressive overall if too much in too small territories, lack of shells and food.

Shrimps:
Only the cleaner shrimps are relatively peaceful. Overall different species often incompatible.
Many eat algae and left over food. But in my opinion do crabs and Nassarius snails a better job. Maybe fun to watch.

Bristleworms:
Different species and different opinons about them. Most people say harmless detritus eaters.

I wouldn't buy too much of any of them at the beginning. If you will get the usual brown algae outbreak that will last only for a few weeks. Cynaobacteria aren't eaten by most of them.

In my view, a functioning nutrients export is more important. This can be achieved by a skimmer, more frequent water changes, nitrate/phosphate removers, Chaetomrpha algae, etc.

All left over food and detritus can get eaten by detritus eaters but even they will left faeces that finally get broken up by bacteria that produce amonia from that. No much different from decomposing the left over food directly by bacteria from the beginning.

Cleaning algae from the glass can be done easily by hand. On locations were the live rock is too near to the glass neither a snail nor you will be able to clean it.

Cleaning algae from live rock is something very difficult for a human and there might be a need for cleaners.

Many thanks Dilbert most helpful and appreciated.

Regards

 

[steelhealr]

Did you see the posts on cleanup crew:

http/www.fishforums.net/content/Nano-Ree...For-Nano-Tanks/

 

[Donya]

Mostly Hermit and Emerald crabs.
Some like them and call them peaceful and others call them reef terrorists.

Yet another good reason to research what one gets before it ends up in one's tank. I really get the impression that most cases of hermity reef terrorism arise from dumping a bunch of thought-to-be-generic hermits into a tank, when there really is no such safe generalization about the hermit species that are commonly found.

Did you see the posts on cleanup crew

SH, just went to have a look at the big sticky list and found I get redirected to just the main forum when I click on "Adding Your Cleanup Crew: Crabs" and Adding Your Cleanup Crew: Shrimp." Are those threads still around?

 

[steelhealr]

Donya..thanks so much for finding that. I repaired the broken link.
SH