Do I feed the janitors?

[mac77]

I have had janitors in my new 55g set up for about a week. They are mostly snails and crabs. They have cleaned every speck of brown algae off of the rock and now there is nothing on the glass. These guys are amazing!!! My question is now...do I need to feed these guys? I have not put any fish or corals in the tank yet, so there is no source of food going in the tank. I am worried about them now because tonight I noticed a couple of hermits eating one of the snails. Is this normal, or do you think they killed it to have a nice dinner?

thanks!

[Indymann99]

Hermits will eat snails when
1. Hungry
2. For the shell
3. for the fun of it
4. If the hermit had a bad day
5. If the hermit had a bad night
6. If the hermit had a good day
7. If the hermit had a good night

I would "feed" the CUC a bit of fish food (some small sinking pellets??) and watch the water params.

my 0.02

oh and I like hermits.. much more fun to watch.

[Fish_wiz2]

well supplement their food with nori of dried algae (used to wrap sushi) also that is normal behavior and why i don't buy hermits anymore :p

[mac77]

Indy, what does CUC mean? Remember...I am a newbie. Ha Ha.

[kevin2000]

Remember .. that except for new tanks most SW tanks don't show obvious signs of diatoms, algae etc - yet the CUC does just fine.

Feeding the CUC is a bad idea unless you have too large a CUC in which case your better off just returning them to the LFS and getting some partial credit on something that may help your tank.

[2_zoa]

Clean Up Crew.....CUC

[mac77]

Thanks, everyone...I understand now. I am still a little confused by your comments, kevin...what do you mean "most SW tanks don't show obvious signs of diatoms, algae etc"? How do I know if I have too large a CUC?

[flyyyguy]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13729260#post13729260 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mac77
How do I know if I have too large a CUC?

if you need to feed them to keep them alive........you have too many.

The problem with overstocking your clean up crew is they starve abd die....they rot, they cause excess nutrients, so you need more...they catch up, the starve again, .they die, they ........you get the picture.

This is why generic numbers of clean up crew for tank size doesnt work. They should be added as necessary, not added becsue your tank is XXX gallons. Every system is different

[mac77]

So I should not feed them, run my tank and add the fish and corals as I want to, and add reef janitors as necessary?

[kevin2000]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13729373#post13729373 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mac77
So I should not feed them, run my tank and add the fish and corals as I want to, and add reef janitors as necessary?

I would not feed the CUC ... they should do fine on their own.

Advising on CUC is pretty tough. In general your goal is to start out with a SMALL but diversified CUC and add as necessary. The diversity is important because different critters eat different things (nassarius snails prefer meat - turbo's prefer algae etc) and you will find that some critters prefer to stay on the rocks while others may prefer the tank walls.

[mac77]

O.K...thanks so much. You have helped a bunch! I appreciate the info.