ordered my cleaning crew

[J-Money]

I ordered my cleaning crew today. I ordered 3 esmerald crabs, 24 scarlet reef hermits, 24 Astrea turbo snails, 24 Nassarius Snails, and 24 Cerith snails. Will I need to add Iodine or anything once a month or so? what about empty shells for the crabs?

 

[leon]

phew, that little lot wont be cheap , but its a good amount to have, although i will imagine you will have to feed them a little after the initial algea growth has been eaten. Get plenty of empty shells, and make sure u put the snails on the glass or rock so they stick as they either cant turn them selves over or take ages to do it, and are easy food for the crabs!

 

[Great Lakes]

The biggest thing to consider is feeding enough for all those little crabs to have something to scurry around for.

I know it sounds strange to say considering they are the clean up crew. But the irony is they are very efficient and I have found that with a large cleanup crew, they are my insurance against overfeeding. I can't seem to overfeed my tank, using sanity as a guideline that is, when my crew is well stocked.

Did that make sense? It is four in the morning for me and I get a little fuzzy at times..

GL

 

[J-Money]

Did that make sense? It is four in the morning for me and I get a little fuzzy at times..

GL

lol, i'm a in a bit of a haze most all the time so don't worry

So I don't have to worry about adding anything other than food and shells for the hermits? I'm not worried about feeding them right now, there's more than enough algae and stuff to go around for a while...lol

that little lot wont be cheap

Nah, it wasn't too bad...$145 but hey, at least I got free shipping

 

[J-Money]

Got 'em today i acclimated them for 2 hours, then tried to individually set them around the tank...boy did that take forever

 

[ostrow]

When all the astreas get eaten because they have fallen on their backs in a spot of the tank where you can't reach them, or because they can't handle the higher temps of our tanks, or because the crabs get hungry, and this will probably happen gradually over many months so don't panic, better replacements are a variety of trochus snails. There are at least 3 or 4 types and they are awesome workers, and they can right themselves.

Not good that so many places keep selling astreas and turbos as they really tend not to do well. If you ahve the patience to right them, you might try keeping your tank always cooler than 77 or so.

But good choice on the rest, the ceriths will multiply.

 

[J-Money]

1 of the Hermits has apparently already died, who knows if he wuz even alive when i put him in the tank , do I need to take him out so he doesn't mess up the water, or will some other crab that might not be so happy with his shell come along and eat him and jack his shell ?

 

[chkltcow]

1 of the Hermits has apparently already died, who knows if he wuz even alive when i put him in the tank , do I need to take him out so he doesn't mess up the water, or will some other crab that might not be so happy with his shell come along and eat him and jack his shell ?

Are you positive he's dead.... or did he molt? I remember when I first added my hermit crabs, I had 15 of them. Two days later, I found 2 "dead" ones. Then... the next day.... 2 more. After freaking out about them dying off so quick, I started counting.... and I still had 15 left. They just had to molt, and I found the old exoskeleton.

 

[J-Money]

well, it looks like his little legs are just haging out of the shell I tried moving him around with my scraper and the legs stayed there so I think he's dead