Janitor Crew

Question
QUESTION: Hi
I'm planning on having a nano FOWLR. What would be a good clean up crew for a 15 gallon tank with 2 ocellaris?

Thanks
Emily

ANSWER: Heloo Emily,

I tend to not want a lot of crabs/hermits in my tanks... IF you are going to get crabs, I would stick with an Emerald Crab...  as they will help with bubble algae and hair algae, if you should get some

I like Nassarium Snails, as they are great for cleaning up anything/everything that dies... They stay buried most of the time, but they can smell food.  so when you feed the tank/fish, they will crawl out of the sand and move with ZOMBIE like precision towards the food...They will fight each other for that morsel... (not fight in bad way.. but in a good way)


I also like a mexican turbo snail or two... and I also have a couple hundred NANO conch snails, (Not sure of the real name), but they are shaped like conch snails, just SMALLER... full grown is about 1/4"

And i started with three, but there are a couple hundred at lat least now...

They breed, lay eggs, and then breed some more...

I can see them in all stages of developement...


I wouldnt get too many of anything to start off... maybe about 5 critters for now...

(Lots of places online for clean up crews sell more quantity, but thier critters are usally very SMALL)

You might want to look at www.reefcleaners.org for more information... they are a great company, and the owner will be very helpful...


Please log onto my new forum at www.thelittleocean.com  and let us know what you you end up buying/getting....


Thanks


Bill

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: after some research, I heard  that it may be a risk to keep the snails and the emerald crab together. I was hoping to have a skunk cleaner shrimp as well. Would that be too much? should I just take away the crabs?

Thanks
Emily

Answer
Hey Emily,

All crabs have risks.. They are 'omnivores'  They will eat whatever they can.. meat, algae, whatever

Most crabs wont be a problem to snails unless they are starving, or if the snail is ill/weak, or if it is a hermit, it might be going after the new shell...

Emerald crabs will do most of what a hermit crab will do/eat, but will also eat things that the hermits wont eat...

A cleaner shrimp is a great addition, but they wont be eating too much algae... they are fun to watch, and if your lucky, they may CLEAN your fish as well.. they sometimes willpick at dead fish scales/flakes/ich, etc...

But, they are just plain ole fun to watch at night.. (especially if you have two), but a smaller tank like yours wouldnt be big enough for two cleaners

Small tanks wont be big enough for a lot of or rather multiple numbers of critters.

There just wont be enough algae to keep lots of crabs/snails full


Which lead to 'opportunistic' feed/hunting/pilfering

I guess i would suggest 1 cleaner, 1 emerald, and about 4 medium sized snails, astrea/turbo/cerith

If your in the SO CAL area, i would hook you up with some of the mini Conch snails as i have TOO MANY of them...

Anyways, good luck, and please keep me posted on what you end up getting.


And you are still invited to the www.thelittleocean.com  WE have many other relatively new members there, that came from here,   and actually we probably have more womenz then guys right now...

And geopgraphy is not an issue as we have folks from all over canada, europe, and the US

So, please, pop in and say hey... and i will set you up with your own private area to keep track of your tank and questions and all that..


thanks and good luck



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