Ryan S February 22, 2012 Share February 22, 2012 I asked about this a while back and I was surprised to find most people here use a mix of snails and hermit crabs. In my last club, back in Kansas, a large portion of the group had snail-only clean up crews. Hermit crabs will/do kill snails when they are hungry or when they want a new shell. Plus you can get different snails that eat entirely different things, or work in different areas of the tank (in the sand, on the glass, on live rock, under live rock, etc). What it your CUC and why did you choose it? Have you tried snail only or hermit crab only? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SunWyrm February 22, 2012 Share February 22, 2012 I like snail only. Though a problem with that I've found is they don't get on rocks as well. I have barely a handful of hermit crab hitchhikers, but in my size tank I feel like they don't count. In other tanks I have urchin only (my eel finds snails tasty) and a cucumber/snail combo. Favorite snail is tiger trochus, my tank wouldn't be the same without those... (Seriously, it would be a lot clearer since they spawn way too often ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hlem February 22, 2012 Share February 22, 2012 (edited) When i first started out, I had everything...100s of each type of snails, and hermits, but now, I rather have nothing... the point of CUC is to control algae, but they dont last long, and then you'll have to refill, and end up with a bunch of shells... so I rather just get a bunch of different tangs... Edited February 22, 2012 by hlem Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RubberFrog February 22, 2012 Share February 22, 2012 Hermits are ok as long as you stick to dwarf hermits. They may still eat a snail, but it's a lot more work for them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mogurnda February 22, 2012 Share February 22, 2012 If you have tangs, you don't need hermits. In a smaller tank, hermits are good for picking debris from rocks. I think one of the issues is that people buy these ginormous clean up crews that are way bigger than necessary, so you end up with animals that are starving, leading to both predation and die-off. JMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firecrackerbob February 22, 2012 Share February 22, 2012 somehow I always end up being contrarian... gaa... anyway, my display is hermit only(with the exception of 1 large mexican turbo). I have found that scarlet hermits live nearly forever in my tank so I have mostly scarlets and some blue legs. my fuge has 1 large zebra. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Der ABT February 22, 2012 Share February 22, 2012 Ive got a little of both....prefer more snails but dont mind some hermits.....they tend to clean frags better if you ask me but both nock over all kinds of stuff. ive had one large snail go in a friends overflow and almost caused a disaster but luckly have not experienced that. Lately i have had alot of snails laying eggs and babies appearing so am gettting a free replenishment. so i guessi dont mind a few hermits, but prefer more snails. just take it slow, you can always add more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad February 22, 2012 Share February 22, 2012 If you have tangs, you don't need hermits. In a smaller tank, hermits are good for picking debris from rocks. I think one of the issues is that people buy these ginormous clean up crews that are way bigger than necessary, so you end up with animals that are starving, leading to both predation and die-off. JMO Big +1. I usually use both in fairly small numbers, I probably have 2-3 turbo snails, 5-10 nassarius snails, 5-10 hermits of varying sizes (I like the "electric blue" ones, plus some smaller ones), and who knows how many stomatellas. If you have a specific reason to avoid hermits, I would do so (like having seahorses for example where they will either eat the hermits or the hermits will nibble on their tails). But otherwise increased diversity is good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan S February 22, 2012 Author Share February 22, 2012 I sent reefcleaners.org a request for a custom cleanup crew. I told them I have a new 150g tank. This is what they recommended. Needless to say, I think it's way overkill right? 60 Dwarf Ceriths - small effective cleaners 36 Nassarius 48 Florida Ceriths 45 Assorted Hermits 4 Assorted Smaller conchs (Bear Conchs) 5 Chitons and 5 Limpets 19 Large Nerite and 15 Small to Medium Nerites Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad February 22, 2012 Share February 22, 2012 It is way overkill. However, probably not as much as you would think. I ordered from them a couple of times the ceriths are TINY, maybe a 1/4" or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaptainRon February 22, 2012 Share February 22, 2012 I've always done a mix of hermits and snails, with emphasis on the snails. For snails, right now I have a mix of Dwarf Ceriths, Astraea, Nassarius. Used to have some nerites too but I'm not sure if there's any left at this point. For hermit crabs I just have a handfull of some scarlet reds and regular blues along with a pair of emerals crabs. Oh.. and one red brittle star. I swear those things will live forever! I'm not sure who's doing it but one of the snails is laying eggs every couple days on the glass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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