Derek Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 I setup a 55 gallon small predator tank about 6 months ago. The problem is, predators eat the normal clean up crew invertebrates. I have a starry blenny in there to help with algae but he's not doing a very good job. I had put a long spine urchin in there but the bluespot puffer I have started eating the spines off of him so I put the urchin in my display tank. Are there any other CUC creatures I could try to help control algae? Maybe a starfish? I'm not sure if the puffer would eat the starfish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juiceman Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 The starfish don't really clean anything, maybe a serpent. Have you tried large turbos, or large hermits. My puffer and snowflake eel dont eat my cuc but I keep them pretty fat with scallops, mussels, and krill. However my puffer did just have a fight trying to eat an emerald crab! Lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Posted February 17, 2012 Author Share Posted February 17, 2012 I haven't tried any bigger creatures. I have/had a few olive snails in there. I haven't seen them in a long while. They are probably fat and happy under the sand. I'll see if I can find some larger turbos. They seem to be in short supply in town as of late. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 With a puffer, nothing is safe. I put them in the same category as triggers. Not many fish eat bristle worms. For detrivore kits, they are they most cost effective direct deposit reproducing janitor that you can add to the crew. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 The starfish don't really clean anything, maybe a serpent. Have you tried large turbos, or large hermits. My puffer and snowflake eel dont eat my cuc but I keep them pretty fat with scallops, mussels, and krill. However my puffer did just have a fight trying to eat an emerald crab! Lol I disagree with this. All starfish are opportunistic. I put hermits in the same predator category as puffers and triggers, they just munch on different stuff. I like to couple serpent stars with emerald crabs. If you put predators in your captive reef then expect them to eat all that they can. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juiceman Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 The starfish don't really clean anything, maybe a serpent. Have you tried large turbos, or large hermits. My puffer and snowflake eel dont eat my cuc but I keep them pretty fat with scallops, mussels, and krill. However my puffer did just have a fight trying to eat an emerald crab! Lol I disagree with this. All starfish are opportunistic. I put hermits in the same predator category as puffers and triggers, they just munch on different stuff. I like to couple serpent stars with emerald crabs. If you put predators in your captive reef then expect them to eat all that they can. Patrick I have had linkias and tile stars, never a serpent so I couldn't say if they would be good or not, then again I dont use sand. When I watch my linkias, I don't see any algae removed by them. The emeralds would probably be good, my puffer tried and failed! That emerald defended himself with a vengeance! Puff daddy was MAD! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subsea Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 The starfish don't really clean anything, maybe a serpent. Have you tried large turbos, or large hermits. My puffer and snowflake eel dont eat my cuc but I keep them pretty fat with scallops, mussels, and krill. However my puffer did just have a fight trying to eat an emerald crab! Lol I disagree with this. All starfish are opportunistic. I put hermits in the same predator category as puffers and triggers, they just munch on different stuff. I like to couple serpent stars with emerald crabs. If you put predators in your captive reef then expect them to eat all that they can. Patrick I have had linkias and tile stars, never a serpent so I couldn't say if they would be good or not, then again I dont use sand. When I watch my linkias, I don't see any algae removed by them. The emeralds would probably be good, my puffer tried and failed! That emerald defended himself with a vengeance! Puff daddy was MAD! I love it when the different critters interact with each other until "Mortal Combat". My Emerald Crabs are very shy and I seldom see them. On the other hand, Coral Banded Shrimp thinks that he is a "terror with claws". Even though he stays hidden behind the rocks, when the scent of food is in the water, he is "King of the Hill". He will come out in the open to make aggresive grabs at fish and swirling food. It does not seem to bother the fish, no one is aggressive back to him, except Mama Clown. She was agressive to him only once. "King of the Hill" came over to "Mama Clowns" side of the tank just after she had adopted five juvenile tank raised Ocellarius Clownfish. She was a tank raised fish from C-Quest in Purto Rico. I had this fish for five years and did not know how to determine sex. She had no problem knowing her sexual orietation. As soon as I put the infant juveniles into my mixed reef display tank she proceeded to gradually move the school of fish into the tenacles of her anemone. Not to long after the introduction of the five small clowns, I noted "King of the Hill" moving to the left behind the rocks. It took him about 90 minutes to make the journey to her side of the tank. During the "journey over", lights timed out. Only the two moon lights gave a dim glow behind the the anemone, highlghting the fingers against subtle blues and shadows, undulating in the random turbulant flow and resulting eddies. Each eddy making a different swirl here and there. It happened so fast, I had forgotton about King of the Hill and his quest for food. I saw a flash of orange, not much more than a blur. When I found a small light to survey the scene, I caught a glimpse of white and red and antennas retreating into the maze of shafts and rocks. I looked for lost appendages and saw no vitals left on the battlefield. Mama Clown was on hieghtened alert. No sign of King of the Hill for 24 hours. When mama ain't happy, no one is happy. Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaarrrggg Posted February 17, 2012 Share Posted February 17, 2012 Jake at RCA recommended large turbos to us when we enquired about CUCs for pred tanks. I think hydro mentioned shield limpets recently too (for his tusk) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ut6 Posted February 18, 2012 Share Posted February 18, 2012 Maybe some sort of urchin.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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