cleanup crew

[Maxi]

Ok.. this is my final decision for a cleanup crew in my 26g bowfront

26 nassarius snails (1 per gallon, are there any other snail that cleans better than these? Algea on the glass?)
15 blue legged hermits
5 scarlet reef hermit crabs
(can anyone reccomend a species of crab? I heard emeralds have betrayed corals, so I'm not going to get one.. even though mine never did nothing like that in my 3 gallon)
1 skunk cleaner shrimp
1 peppermint shrimp
lettuce nudibranch(maybe)
marble sea star

I'm just wondering if this is a good list, or if I need any add-ons, or to remove anything.

Thank you
-Maxi

[Bebo77]

arent nassarius for sand? Astera(sp) do a better job on glass

[tanker]

Nassarius snails eat meat, not algae. For algae try Trocus ( i hope I spelled it right).

[Drock169]

Astrea are good for glass, Cerith are good for just about everything though, they will burrow and clean your glass

[Maxi]

Sorry guys I ment astrea not nassarius :p
Can I get both cerith and astrea?

[Maxi]

And the marble sea star, does anyone have any experience with them?

[Mavrk]

It is good to have a variety to cover the different types of clean up jobs. And, yes, they can all live together.

My recommendations are nassarius (for detritus and left over food... great for aerating sand bed), cerith (eat algae and detritus and bury themselves in the sand... even eat cyanobacteria, diatoms, and sometimes hair algae), nerite (algae and cyano eaters... hard to find at LFS near me), and trochus (great at eating diatoms and "normal" algae... can get big but will not knock over corals like turbos) snails. Astreas (eat algae) are nice, but cannot right themselves if they fall, so keep an eye on them.

I personally think that 1 snail per gallon is a lot. If you get your levels right, then you will have less algae and your snails will need to be fed. Start small and you can always add more later if you need to. Ceriths are probably the most versitile. Ceriths and astrea are relatively small, so you can get more of these than the others.

It sounds like you have too many hermits to me. I don't trust hermits so I don't keep them in my tank. If I did, I would limit it to very few. Be sure to have pleanty of shells of different sizes for them to move into. This will help keep them from killing all your snails. That being said, if a hermit really takes a liking to a shell then it will kill the snail anyway.

[Norward]

That's a lot of CUC for 26g. IMO, cutting your count in half would surely be enough. I am finding that 5 nassarius for sand, 2 astrea and 2 nerite for glass, and 3 conch for surface are doing fine. I agree that hermits are sometimes as much of a pain as a help. If you must get a few (I have five) get the scarlet legged as I find the blues to be "mean". I agree that cerith are a great snail choice, but if you get hermits the cerith shell is coveted by them. I waited awhile before adding shrimp, but find them to be of benefit as well. Not sure about a star. Hope this helps.

[risika67]

I've had a marble sea star which ate algea. It was a wonderful addition! Mine seemed really hardy too

[Maxi]

Thank you!!!