Your Nano Clean up Crew? What do YOU have?

[saltman123]

I have a 12 gallon Aquapod and have a small little crew of crabs and snails holding it down. I was wondering what everyone has in their tank? Seems like my crew does a good job, but no one likes to eat a little green algae that grows here or there. I've had a few snails die off, but my hermits are mostly still there since the first of my crew.

What does your clean up crew consist of???

12 Gallon Aquapod

Mine crew currently is:
2 Scarlet Reef Hermits
1 Tiny Blue Leg Hermit
2 Blue Leg Hermits
2 Zebra Hermits
4 Nassarius Snails
1 Bumble Bee Snail
1 Astrea Snail
3 Cerith Snails

What do you have???

[Eklikewhoa]

1 tiny blue legged hermit
1 Nassarius
3 Chestnut turbos
1 Queen conch

[Slakker]

Currently I have 1 blue legged hermit and 3 cerith snails. I've been saying "I need to add more." since August and I haven't gotten around to it yet...good game, me!

[saltman123]

Be sure to post how many gallons your tank is too :)

[Slakker]

whoops! It's a 12g tank, my mistake!

[bad santa]

i have a 6 gal. and i have
3 nassarius snals
3 blue legged hermits
3 snails that i cant remember their name at the moment

[Cristina_j]

I have a 34gal rimless tank

1 Emerald Green Crab
15 Blue/Red Hermits
15 Snails
5 Nasarrius Snails
1 Peppermint shrimp
1 cleaner shrimp
Urchin
a ton of these snails that only have half shell & are really ugly

[reefman13]

I have a 90 w/ 7 Nassaris and 5 Astrea, and a NC12g w/ 150W MH with 4 Astrea..... Never really had any intentions of buying agressive little hermits.

[aaronpentz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11256316#post11256316 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Cristina_j
a ton of these snails that only have half shell & are really ugly [/B]

I believe those are called abalone

[saltman123]

The hermits beat each other up a little, and sometimes will bother the nassarius snails. Other than that they go around eating and keeping my rock clean all day. They are cool with me :)

[SPARTAN VI]

I have a 24g Nano cube.

2 nassarius snails.
6 hermits.

The two nails cleaned 3 months worth of algae in less than 2 days!

[Jovreefer]

I have a 20H

7 TINY blue legs
2 Scarlet hermits
1 scarlet shrimp
(originally) 6 nassarius snails, several adults died but I've got probably 1-2 dozen babies in the tank.
1 mexican turbo (recently died... needs replacing)

Hitchhiker crew includes
Countless astrina stars (I believe thats what they are called?)
a few mini brittle stars
a few remaining bristleworms that my 6 line has not found.

[digitaldego77]

I higly recommend the Mexican Turbo Snails. They munch like none other, just make sure your corals are nailed down or they'll knock em all over the place. I also have a black cucumber that does some nice late night grub-down. Good sand sifter too.

[TAF]

I have 3 Atlantic turbo snails. They are eating swaths in my 12g green algae, and the point at the top of their shell keeps them from getting stuck and dying when they fall over.

All my mexican turbos fell over and died that way before I knew I was supposed to go around turning them all back over when they fell.

[Eklikewhoa]

Can't edit....

Mine is a NC12g.

add... Skunk cleaner and blood fire shrimp

Also have tons of
pods
bristle worms
tiny brittle stars
stomatella

[iairj84]

I just put in an order with Reefscavengers.com for a nano clean up crew and it was under $30 shipped for the whole thing. The snails here locally are around $4 a piece and I'm getting a lot more than that.... Check them out and I'll let you know when I get them on wednesday.

[kaserpick]

I have a 30g; my clean up crew is as follows:

12 Blue-legs
6 Red-legs
12 Astreas
6 Cerith
1 Hawaiian Cowrie
1 Money Cowrie

[sprinj76]

20 gallon long
3 turbo snails
5 banded trochus snails

[cazzy]

~12g just set up.... so far
2 turbo snails
2 red-legs

[NanoReefWanabe]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11256970#post11256970 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by aaronpentz
I believe those are called abalone

could be Stomella

turbos suck unless you havea huge algea problem...and after they are done you will have a huge detritus problem, very short lived in nano's as they eat like pigs and run out of food fast...plus they are slobs and obnoxious around the corals

i have a 20H

5 nassarius snails (mostly sand cleaner)
3 astrea snails (mostly glass cleaner)
2 margarita snails (mostly rock cleaner)
2 trochus snails (mostly rock cleaner)
1 cerith snail (mostly rock cleaner)
3 blue leg hermits. (rock cleaners)
1 black brittle star (sand bed cleaner)
1 coral banded shrimp (what ever it can get its grubby little pincers on)
and best BY FAR is my Strawberry Conch, cleans the sand and only the sand, no toppling corals because he doesnt leave the sand...sifts it like crazy with his huge snauze...and then burys himself to move sand around a little more..

lost in my sump but still active are a zebra hermit...far too agressive around the other hermits, and a crown conch, not a good tank mate for other snails, plus there is a wack or asternia stars down the there

[thrillreefer]

You mean what did have?
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb186/thrillreefer/IMG_3430.jpg

Came out of my 29 when I moved everything to a new tank. I've never had great luck with snails, but these are 80% of a cleanup crew package I bought from GARF less than 6 weeks ago.

[cherubfish pair]

NanoReefWanabe,
Could you post a picture of your strawberry conch?

I had 5 astrea snails in my 10 gallon and my pistolshrimp ate them all.

[gsusfreak]

i have in my 20 gal

10 blue leg hermits
10 astrea snails
5 ceriths
1 queen conch
2 nassarius snails
...and a bazillion asternia starfish, spaghetti worms, and bristle worms

[saltman123]

Nice Shell Collection thrillreefer!!!

I definitely have a small collection of 5 to 10 over the course of my tank's life of 14+ months :)

[Chibils]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11255618#post11255618 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Eklikewhoa
1 tiny blue legged hermit
1 Nassarius
3 Chestnut turbos
1 Queen conch Not to be negative, but a queen conch will get about a foot long.

[bottlecapp09]

In my 20gal long I have:
2 Scarlet Reef Hermits
10 Blue Legged Hermits
1 mexican turbo snail (which is great but knocks things on the ground)

[NanoReefWanabe]

The Strawberry Conch
as requested by Cherubfish.
The mh are not on yet...and this snail tends to sleep at night...but is very active during the day..
side shot:
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l46/crazyoldcougar/IMG_4457.jpg
front:
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l46/crazyoldcougar/IMG_4456.jpg

i think it gets the strawberry name from the colour of the under sider of the shell, which is bright pinkish red..

i will get a better pic of him cleaning when the lights come on...

PS i also absolutely love all the bristle worms in my tank, the are awesome scavengers...i watched them rip apart and clean out my dead turbo snail in a matter of hours...they even let the nassarius have a bite or two as well..

here is a pic of him moving around and eating...his mouth like appendage will extend a little further then is shown too...about another 1/2"...you can also see his eyes extended out from under the shell...one up front the other to the side..
http://i93.photobucket.com/albums/l46/crazyoldcougar/IMG_4462.jpg

[NanoReefWanabe]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11262427#post11262427 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thrillreefer
You mean what did have?
http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb186/thrillreefer/IMG_3430.jpg

Came out of my 29 when I moved everything to a new tank. I've never had great luck with snails, but these are 80% of a cleanup crew package I bought from GARF less than 6 weeks ago.

that is an awful lot of death for six weeks?

what are your water parameters like?

do you have a spearer mantis hiding in one of your rocks? or is there any sign that a smasher may have broke the shells?

[NanoReefWanabe]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11257832#post11257832 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jovreefer
I have a 20H

7 TINY blue legs
2 Scarlet hermits
1 scarlet shrimp
(originally) 6 nassarius snails, several adults died but I've got probably 1-2 dozen babies in the tank.
1 mexican turbo (recently died... needs replacing)

Hitchhiker crew includes
Countless astrina stars (I believe thats what they are called?)
a few mini brittle stars
a few remaining bristleworms that my 6 line has not found.

you have breeding Nassarius Snails in your tank...do you have documentations or photos of this? as far as i was told only cerith and if your lucky nerite (sp) snails will breed in aquariums...

i have invested too much money into Nassarius snails and not had any breeders...i currently have 6, started with 10....i see the egg sacs all over the glass from time to time...but never any baby snails..

[Jovreefer]

I DID have breeding nassarius :( I believe the pair died, I have not seen any new babies in about 8-10 months.
I had a few pics on my local reef board ... they are really hard to photograph with my point & shoot camera but I'll see if I still have them when I get home.

As for my experience with them. Bought them in 04, they were your avarage nassarius snail (not those mamoth size ones) They grew, in early 06 I noticed some egg strings on the glass in the far back corner behind rocks. few months later noticed TINNNNNYYY little pointy shells running around my tank when I fed. Noticed this occurance 2 or 3 times with the eggs & tiny new snails. and FWIW I had no other snails in the tank till later 06 when I got an algae outbreak & added my mexican turbo.

The babies grow pretty slow too, in a year they have maybe doubled their size, which is not very big considering how small they were when they hatched. Could possibly be do to the fact that I have an SPS nano & they take most of the calcium preventing the snails shell from growing fast but this is just my personal wild guess.

[Jovreefer]

here is a link with a few pics :)

http://www.bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=19465&highlight=Snail+eggs

[Midus]

29G tank. These are my numbers from awhile back. Unsure of how many are alive now :(

5 Tiny Blue Legged hermits
3 Tiny Zebra Hermits
10 Nassarius Snails
10 Cerith Snails
1 Emerald Crab

[cherubfish pair]

Jovreefer, I can't get your link to work.

[michika]

28g display

- fire shrimp
- urchin
- strawberry conch
- money cowry
- ~5 blue leg hermits
- orange hermit
- some random snails.
- 2? bumble bee snails

I haven't purchased clean up crew members (aside from the urchin), in probably a year or two. Its probably time to add some more.

[plankton]

None.

Decided not to have any snails nor hermit crabs, etc.

[OK, technically I have some snails that must have come from the chaeteo I got from a friend or some LPS frags I also have tons of amphipod and copepods throughout the tank and sand bed].

The reason I decided not to add any inverts was because:

1) They sometimes crawl over zooanthids which causes the zoos to close up.

2) As others have mentioned many of the snails available are really from temperate regions so unless you run your tank water cool (68 deg F) the snails don't last very long. Not true for snails collected from warm water reefs but they are much, much more expensive.

I'm controlling algae and detritus by 20% biweekly water changes, skimming, low bio-load, and by siphoning detrius off the sand bed manually each water change.

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/plankton123/DuskShot3.jpg

Scott

[Mikeyjer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11268967#post11268967 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Chibils
Not to be negative, but a queen conch will get about a foot long.

It also take'em a long time to get that big..... :)

[Buzz]

NC6

4 Astreas
1 Nassarius
1 Red Leg hermit (tiny)

Hitchhikers: 1 stomatella, 4-5 asterinas

[conorwynne]

100Ltr (26G?)

1 Nerith - the others died by Mr. Crabs, my two year old hermit who hates anytning in a shell, including any other hermit species!
1 Sea Hare
3 Peppermint Shrimp (added this evening)
1 Filefish.

This is also my entire "moving" livestock.
I really must get a fish!

regards
Conor.

[gmatter]

15G tank:

8 Hermit Crab
6 Turbo Snail
3 Nishis
25 Nassarius

Regards,