A Super Friendly Clean Up Crew?

[Danno]

Is typed in my signature, I am setting up a 10 gallon marine tank. I was wondering what is the most peaceful yet very effective clean up crew. I googled "peaceful" with a marine clean up crew and came up with nothing useful. Anyone have any ideas or experiences with this?

 

[SkiFletch]

Snails are peaceful, crabs and starfish can be terrors more often than not. You're better off going with cerith, nassarius, trochus, margarita, or astrea snails.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Good posting Ski. Id also recommend something like a Redline shrimp or a Blood Shrimp. Dont go Hermits. They just terrorism and trample.

 

[Danno]

So is this a good clean up crew?

1 Cerith Snail
1 Nassarius Snail
1 Turbo Snail
1 Blood Shrimp
1 Peppermint Shrimp


So Emerald Crabs are bad huh?

 

[afmo]

So is this a good clean up crew?

1 Cerith Snail
1 Nassarius Snail
1 Turbo Snail
1 Blood Shrimp
1 Peppermint Shrimp


So Emerald Crabs are bad huh?

i dont think thats gonna be enough... i have 7 snails, 1 turbo snail (big, like 3") 7 hermits, and a shrimp in my 10 gallon....

Also, anecdotal evidence inc. here, but the only hermit i've ever had problems with is the dwarf zebra. The scarlet reefs and blue legs havent bothered anything.

 

[Danno]

Then how about:

3 Cerith Snail
3 Nassarius Snail
3 Turbo Snail
1 Blood Shrimp
1 Peppermint Shrimp

 

[steelhealr]

Turbos are good cleaners but the more you put in, the more you have your corals rearranged. I have no problems with mithrax crabs. However, with good care, they CAN grow to 1-2 inches and be opportunistic. Scarlet hermits are pretty mellow but underachievers IMO.

A nice cleanup crew for a 10 is:
-3 cerith
-1 Turbo
-3 Nassarius
-3-5 Astreas
- 1 or 2 shrimp
-+/- mithrax

Good luck. SH

 

[Danno]

My local pet store has a sally lightfoot crab. Can that substitute for a mithrax?

 

[rhysiboy]

no sf are apparently (hate to blanket statement lynden ) unfriendly to corals or agresive something alon those lines

 

[Donya]

Just to put a good word in for one type of hermit...electric blue hermits are the bomb. They do great cleanup work on rocks. For snails...I'm not fond of Astrea. Trochus are much better substitutes for Astrea IMO since they are hardier and seem to eat a wider range of algaes, but I gather that Trochus are not as readily available in all areas.

 

[steelhealr]

I love astrea snails. They did a great job in my tank scouring the LR. They even ate cyanobacteria. Not a big fan of hermits. Sally light foots are a no no if you are planning on a reef tank. SH