cleaning crew

[sigma]

is there a general rule that says how many shrimp/snails and such should be used per gallon?

 

[Navarre]

I would go for 1 per gallon (1 per 2 gallons to start with i guess would be ok).

Some cleanup crews are more efficent than others. Hermits can be lazy (reds det to be more nocturnal also) blues are aggressive but good cleaners. Snails are great, but try to gt diferent species to tackle different types of algea etc. Shrimps are good scavengers but not for algea, sand sifting stars are brilliant at keeping the sand clean but they are definately not to be used in a deep sand bed. Another good cleanup crew is an algea blenny..

Now of course, you would not be able to use 40 algea blennies in a 40 gallon setup so i suggest you try and make a varied mix and get as many as you can.

 

[sigma]

is there a different acclimating method for shrimp, snails, hermits, and stars? I would prob get a cleaner shrimp and maybe a dozen turbo snails today. I hear that cleaner shrimp are pretty sensitive when it comes to acclimating them so I would probably do a drip method for him, but could I do the snails at the same time? and in the same bucket?

 

[Navarre]

Do them the same way... The longer you take to aclimatise them then the better they will adapt. It wont do your inverts any harm to have a longer aclimaatisation period but it could well be their death if its too short