Rotating Cleanup Crew Between Tanks

[MattMack]

Hi There,

Hope everyone is well.

I have a question about rotating my "cleanup Crew" between tanks.

I have my aquarium set up in a way that I am happy with and have a blue crayfish with some fish that he can live with quite well. However, I can't have a cleanup crew in my aquarium because anything on the bottom he kills. Ottos do alright, but sometimes he gets them and nerite snails never last 24 hours.

I'm wondering about getting a small second tank (10 Gal) to keep a couple of Nerite Snails and Ottos in and perhaps once a month pulling the crayfish and putting him in the smaller tank and moving the snails and ottos into the big tank for a week to clean and switching back.

So my ultimate question is, can I just move the crayfish and the cleaning crew between tanks somewhat regularly like that, or would that represent a bad practice.

Thanks for any feedback,

Matthew

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Switching back and forth is never a good idea.

Why do you always loose your Nerite snails?

 

[MattMack]

Thanks for the feedback, I assumed that would be the case but wanted to check.

The crayfish eats the snails. They are fine on the walls of course, but as soon as they hit the ground he kills them.

Thanks for the reply!

 

[PheonixKingZ]

No problem! Happy to help.

 

[vanalisa]

Thanks for the feedback, I assumed that would be the case but wanted to check.

The crayfish eats the snails. They are fine on the walls of course, but as soon as they hit the ground he kills them.

Thanks for the reply!

Well, looks like you're the clean-up crew!

Poor Otocinlus!
I would love to see the tank and what you were able to come up with for stocking☆

 

[MattMack]

I have a little school of 6 pearl danios and a big yellow balloon molly. They all keep to the upper levels of the tank so the crayfish leaves them all alone and they coexist quite nicely! But yes - I am the cleanup crew! I do have one Otto in there now who has been around for a month or so now, so he may have figured out how to live with the crayfish. But the snails never had a chance.

Cheers!