Looking For More Cuc

[TigerIssey]

Reet since getting my tank upgrade, I no longer have sufficient amounts of CUC.

At present I have

5 Nassarius snails
4 ish Turbo snails, found 2 upside down just had been eaten.
6 Cerith - 1 large 5 small
5 Red leg hermits
1 Emerald Crab

I am thinking to get more as the tank is bigger. (Double gallons + sump)

I intend to get

5 Nassarius
3 - 4 Turbo
2 large Cerith

Now in addition to this I would like a conch, I know some such as Strombus gigus get huge. I have seen Strombus luhuanus but cannot find much on it. It is described as both orange lip and strawberry. Is this suitable for my tank??

I would also like to get a banded serpent star, can anyone see any problems with this?

Does the increase in snails sound ok.

Tank 39 gallons with 13g sump (not full obviously).

 

[Donya]

I have a Strombus luhuanus currently; they don't get too big and are fairly easy to keep IME provided they have sufficient food, but need a lot of open sand to stomp around on and dig in. They'll also jump off of rocks sometimes and land on things, which can be problematic for fragile things placed low in the tank. Unfortunately, conch + crab = bad for the conch if the crab is big enough and gets hungry. Conches have no significant protection from something with sufficiently long claws, including some large hermits and even some rather small true crabs. With the current stocking, a conch is not a good choice, since all the crab would have to do is flip it over and stick a claw inside the shell to pull it out. Smaller hermits are not a threat to decent-sized conches since, provided the conch isn't compromised in some other way, the hermits will get smacked around if the conch is upside down and tries to right itself.

 

[TigerIssey]

Thanks Donya. I would rather know that know than after having bought one. I will give it a miss then, my crab is so sweet I prefer to have him. At the moment that is.

Does anyone have any opinions on the numbers of snails and the serpent star??