victoly Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 What have your experiences been in terms of the ability of your tank to sustain a cleanup crew over time? I'm a light feeder and have noticed that I just can't sustain a large poplation of dwarf cerith or nerites. nassarius seem to be doing fine though. Does anyone do supplemental feeding just for the herbivores? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 (edited) This is one of the reasons I stopped using ceriths and most CUC in general. I do keep Nerites with no problem with the exception of them climbing out of the tank occasionally. Nassarius do not eat algae and I typically don't have enough leftover food to sustain them so I don't keep them for that reason. I currently have mini brittle stars in the substrate and fuge, a ton of astrea starfish and about a dozen nerites which do a decent job on film algae. Personally, I think people really overuse snails and hermits. Simple truth that many don't have long lifespans. Even a small snail contributes a large load to a tank when it dies and decomposes. Not saying they're not necessary at all, just that putting hundreds of snails in a small closed ecosystem is neither natural nor in the best long term interest of the tank. Edited October 9, 2012 by jestep Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bige Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 I have one hermit and one snail. That seems to be the number my tank can keep alive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard L Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 The snails that are capable of knocking stuff over seem to thrive in mine. Interesting thoughts though. Now that I have a big tank with tons of rock, it's hard to look at it and say if the CUC numbers have changed. I would think I would see a lot more empty shells lying around than I do if there was a serious reduction in the population. I do like the diversity CUC's add to the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 After the poor survival rate I've seen over the years I won't do most of the species listed for CUCs. I like one Sallylightfoot per 100 gal. but not more than one male per tank. One or two of the shortspine urchins per 100 gallons (sometimes three). I also like a couple of brittle stars per tank or one per 100 gallons for bigger tanks. I will put in a couple of dozen Blue legged Hermits when I start up a tank with the expectation I will have just a few large ones after a year, I'm pretty sure they thin themselves out by killing each other off as the molt. I do like having one of the big hermits from the coast with stripped legs but they are not for everybody or every tank as clumsy as they are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesL Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 It makes sense that as a tank matures, and less nuisance algae/etc is in the tank, the less CUC is needed. As Tim pointed out, some things like the small hermits self-thin themselves. When I first started my 75, I had the usual roster of lots blue hermits, ceriths, nassaruis, turbos, etc. Now, I have maybe one or two blue hermits, no ceriths (the hermits killed them for the shells), and a small handful of nassarius. But I have added cucmbers, and a halloween crab. They all seem content ... especially since I rarely feed And I don't have any nuisance algae at all. My tangs keep anything that tries to grow from the rock work in check, and I have to wipe down the inside of the tank from film algae maybe once every other week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted October 9, 2012 Author Share Posted October 9, 2012 This is one of the reasons I stopped using ceriths and most CUC in general. I do keep Nerites with no problem with the exception of them climbing out of the tank occasionally. Nassarius do not eat algae and I typically don't have enough leftover food to sustain them so I don't keep them for that reason. I currently have mini brittle stars in the substrate and fuge, a ton of astrea starfish and about a dozen nerites which do a decent job on film algae. Personally, I think people really overuse snails and hermits. Simple truth that many don't have long lifespans. Even a small snail contributes a large load to a tank when it dies and decomposes. Not saying they're not necessary at all, just that putting hundreds of snails in a small closed ecosystem is neither natural nor in the best long term interest of the tank. I tend to agree with everything there. My next project is to saltwater acclimate a plecostomus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClarkiiCircus Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 I keep turbos only. They clean the glass and live for a while (bought mine when I set up my maroons 20gal about mid march), and are decent at cleaning the glass. I AM a heavy feeder though, so I'm sure it fuels the algae for them to eat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
victoly Posted October 9, 2012 Author Share Posted October 9, 2012 so why have nerites gained favor over turbos? i would suppose a size thing? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jestep Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 Size and damage. I could probably get away with them now but my turbo's in my last tank were like bulldozers with wrecking balls attached to them. They are significantly more efficient than nerites though. Probably 10 - 20 nerites to the effectiveness of 1 good turbo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timfish Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 Forgot cucumbers, i usually have one of the sand eating species. I avoid sand sifting stars, someone posted in another thread they starve in smaller tanks and I'd agree. I've only had one live past a year and it is in a 300 gallon system with at least 50% open sand bottom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Grog Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 I'm down to one urchin, one turbo snail, and one large red mithrax crab in the 10g tank with the mantis. All the other neighbors have become food for Bubba. I still find it strange that he hasn't eaten the mithrax yet. But the mithrax is a cleaning beast. Always picking at this and that and has doubled in size since I got him. The larger snails seem to do a good job in my 33 tank but they are big and knock unattached frags around, kind of annoying. I've had some hermit loss but still have quite a number remaining but I've seen other folks loose 'em left and right. Richard, from TBS, included a bunch of different sized shells in with the shipment of crabs. He indicated that would give them new homes and reduce their in-fighting when they are looking to upgrade shells. Not sure if that is true but it was an interesting concept so I dumped the empties behind my rock work, next to the back wall. Figured it wouldn't hurt back there.... Brittle stars are cool. No idea where my cukes are. They disappear for months at a time the appear again randomly for a day or so, then are hiding again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mFrame Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 I've still got a great community of blue-leg hermits in my tank, but attribute that to having a ton of empty shells of all sizes in the tank. Still quite a few snails left as well as the ceriths. My hawks took to eating mithrax crabs and shrimp, so those are gone - sad, I really like their personalities. I have two serpent stars going, 1 brown one over a year and the other red one approaching his anniversary. Two red knobby stars have been in their over a year. Probably one of my favorites is my money cowrie, though I don't think he eats much he's a blast to watch. Tiger tail cuke rounds up the bunch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Bio)³ Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 I have probably 100 dwarf cerith's, 5 large cerith, 15 blue hermits, 1 large nassarius, 8 small nassarius 2 smaller turbo and 2 large turbo, serpent star, 2 emerald crabs,8 nerite and a sand siting cuke. At night time I can not see into my tank for a few hours due to so many snails cover up the glass. during the day I just see the turbo's crusing around and a few smaller snails. The hermits are always moving as is the cuke who is always eatting and has a couple rocks he cycles between to clean under them. All this is in a 29 biocube but I had my electrical problem that killed off all the rock so I have a tremendous food source for them all. I even pull 5 gallons of GHA out every 2 weeks to help the CUC. I could restart the tank and it would be easier to deal with but I'm enjoying watching the tank recover and I get to learn in the process. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bannerfish Posted October 9, 2012 Share Posted October 9, 2012 i cant seem to keep nasarius snails alive long at all. Not sure if something was wrong with the cucumber i tried one time, but it didnt last long at all. the tiny blue legs you see for sale often dont last long, but the bigger ones do fine. the scarlet reef hermits seem to last the longest. I still have one of my original red legs, although he looks like a tarantula in a shell now, hes huge. i believe one of my old fish ate most of the others i had in there. the big zebra turbo snails last a good long time in my tank as well, but the prettier ones dont last long. some of them are cooler water species and dont tolerate our warmer tanks very well. emeralds also do very well in my tanks...without an eel in there to eat them lol. micro stars and spaghetti worms multiply like crazy in mine too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted October 10, 2012 Share Posted October 10, 2012 Have a ton of cerith snails and blue leg hermits and a few nasarius doing fine in mine but still can't keep turbos for more than 3 weeks. Don't know why they keep dying off. Still have the GHA problem but not as bad as it was. Have a green brittle star thats on the move when the lights go out. Maybe i'll try a Cucumber soon..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+brian.srock Posted October 10, 2012 Share Posted October 10, 2012 sifuentes31: The sea hare devoured everything in my tank in less than 2 weeks. I did hand pick what I could out first and made sure I had new filter media. As for a CUC I don't think I've replaced any turbos in a very long time but their still there. I don't notice them so much now since they come out at night and I don't have frags everywhere on the sandbed since I switched to ecotech coral glue. I also have a reef safe brittle star in my display tank and a yellow banded brittle star in my sump. I have noticed some baby ceriths snails in my sump. I just picked up 2 decorator crabs to help with algae last week and their still fine. I also have some peppermint shrimps that I got from Bio3 at the beginning of the summer that I perfer to the hermits. I also have 2 money cowrie snails that I see every now and then. I think I will pick up an urchin next and I need another skunk shrimp. Since I run a fish light tank I like to indulge in all the different CUCs available so I can still feed heavy for the corals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sifuentes31 Posted October 10, 2012 Share Posted October 10, 2012 Man thats great about the sea hare. I forgot to mention i got two more urchins for the GHA. A pincushion, and long spine urchin. Both are neat looking but there is so much GHA that they really don't make a dent on it. Still have my pencil urchin and have had him since April i think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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