+ 5 Gallon Cleanup Crew

[Ethics]

Hey guys,

It's been a week since I have put up my 5 gallon nano and everything seems to be going great.

The parameters are all exactly where they should be, and no cycle has started. I used cured live rock and live sand, so hopefully we won't be seeing a cycle.

Now I was looking to purchase something for the tank, a cleanup crew would be a good start.

So what do you gusy suggest I purchase for my tank to start off?

Oh and a quick question, can snails and other animals crawl out of the tank if there's no lid on it?

Thanks,
Mario



Oh keep in mind I'll be keeping a goby and a pistol shrimp in the tank.

[Ethics]

Anybody?

I'll be heading for the fish store in 2 hours, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Mario

[sir_dudeguy]

snails CAN crawl out of the tank...do they tho? usually not. theres some snails that are intertidal so they'll crawl out some, but stuff like ceriths, turbos, nassarius...they all stay under.

and those are basically the ones i'd recomend to start off...maybe not the turb tho, or maybe just 1.

I'd say go for 3 nassarius and 3 ceriths to start...you dont wanna starve them because theres not enough stuff growing yet.

I'd stay away from hermit crabs tho...they'll likely kill the ceriths for their shells, and then find that they dont even like that shell for whatever reason, and just walk away lol. Some say to throw in extra shells for them...i have about 30 extra shells in my 55 and only 5 hermits, yet they seem to be killing the snails more and more.

Plus, the hermits dont really do much...they're pretty lazy if you ask me. Mine just catch whatever food is floating around them or laying on the ground/rock, but they wont touch any algae or anything.

My ceriths are great tho. I'd say that once your tank gets going more and everything starts to grow that you could up your number of them to say....8...and so on. just add a few at a time and if they're not enough..go for more

The nassarius snails you will rarely see. They burrow in the sand and get stuff in there, but mine come zooming when i throw in meaty foods :)

[Ethics]

Great,

Jeeze sir_dudeguy, your pretty much running my tank, 90% of what I've done to the tank has come from you :-P I really appreciate all the help.

I will keep an eye on the snails, hopefully they won't crawl out.

I decided to get...

3 Nassarius Snails
3 Cerith Snails
1 Turbo Snail

Hopefully they'll be alright in my tank.

Will I need to purchase some kind of food to feed these guys? or will they be alright with what's growing on the liverock?

And if you guys have anymore suggestions, or info o these snails I'd love to hear it.

Thanks again,
Mario

[sir_dudeguy]

The ceriths and turbo will be fine on what grows on the rock and glass. The turbos i know eat a couple dif. types of algae, and same with the ceriths, except mine seem to make a cleaner job of it. I also think that the ceriths will eat the turbo poo (which is pretty big for a snail...like those rabbit food pellets is what it looks like kinda).

But I would throw in some flake at least maybe 2 times a week for the nassarius. I dont know if they'll eat it, but they dont really eat algae i dont think. But if you've got any meaty foods, like mysis shrimp, throw that in once a week...they'll go NUTS over it lol. I never see mine besides when i feed them that. Just dont feed much of it or you'll get some nitrates.