Jestersix

Beginner Clean-Up Crew Invertebrates

Stop by any of the big local fish stores in the bay area. They have empty shells. Ask them if you can buy shells. The cool ones will just give you the empty shells for free.

As for snails dying, 30% of my snails mysteriously die a couple months after adding them. Theres algae. No predators. They just die.

I add new snails probably 3 times a year.

Have you thought about target feeding your hermits/shrimp with a turkey baster and some frozen food?
 
Hey @Enderturtle , thanks for the advice! I started target feeding the shrimp in the day and at at night to keep him at bay. that has been huge. for food i have flakes, pellets, brine shrimp and mysis that i just started rotating meals for everyone
 
I contacted Reef Cleaners and this is what they recommended for my 75...seems excessive

60 Dwarf Ceriths 0.17 10.2
19 Nassarius Vibex 0.45 8.55
25 Florida Cerith 0.6 15
20 Nerite Snail 0.75 15
18 Assorted Hermits* 0.6 10.8
Total Before Shipping

59.55
1 Discount “5off” -5 -5
1 Priority Mail 0



FeliciaLynn said:
This is the information from a handout I made for the New Hobbyist Workshop on 4/12/14.

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They're in the business of overselling. Also, keep in mind that John can't count. He'll usually send you 1.5-2x that to account for any die offs during shipping. That list makes sense if you have a number of algae in the tank but for most tanks it isn't needed.

Are you dealing with some type of algae or other issues? What's prompting the need for the cuc?
 
i lost a few of my snails over time and never replaced them. I have a little bit of algae that resembles a thin carpet, so I thought getting some critters might be a good idea. I have one hermit, maybe three snails left
 
So, let's start from top to bottom of what John has listed.

Dwarf Ceriths - tiny little snails that he'll definitely ship 2x the amount listed at. Great for getting in the nooks and cranny since they're quite small (think on the order of grains of rice, short grain). Will be hidden most of the time, until the lights goes out and they're out feeding.
Nassarius vibex - will be hidden under the sand, until any sort of food hits the water column. Amazing sense of smell and overall great clean up for leftover food or for any sort of meaty food (think fish bodies).
Florida Cerith - Larger than the dwarfs and you will usually see these around since they're usually on the glass eating away at the brown film algae.
Nerite snail - Decent algae eaters, but you have to keep your tank on the cooler side. I would keep it lower than 76° versus the 78° that Felicia mentioned in the OP. You will find them outside the tank otherwise.
Assorted hermits - Not really a good idea if you keep any sort of snails since they will most likely go after them for their shells.

If you have the mentioned algae and want something to go after that, go to any LFS and grab a couple of Mexican turbos, 5-10 banded/tiger Trochus, and maybe a handful of red-legged hermit crabs (the only hermit crabs that I would deem safe in a reef tank with snails). After that, wait it out and let the clean up crew do their thing. You might be tempted to overwhelm the tank with cuc, but you'll end up with them dying afterwards of starvation as the population falls in line with the available food source.
 
The black footed Trochus snails are the hardiest from my experience. They were constantly moving and grazing. On top of that, I had babies pop up and grow to adult sizes at one point. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any locally. If you see them, please let me know.
 
I'll have to keep that in mind the next time I am in Hayward. I will probably check out some stores in SJ area after CFM too.
 
I got baby trochus from RandyC - those little guys are awesome - active, hungry, and actually go on the rock and not only the glass.
 
Quick question are the snails going to die if they fall from the glass? I think it happen like that with 2 of my snails. I did not turned them over after they felt.
Also it would be a nightmare for me to start to turn snails over.
 
It depends on what type of snails they are. Some can self right, others can’t. The ones that can’t self right become easy pickings for other parts of your clean up crew or fish n
 
Alexx said:
I had throcus snail and astrid snail
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Alex, your situation was a little different though because your parameters weren’t stable. That was the likely cause of your snail deaths. Trochus have been my favorite snails. They live very long in my aquarium and have reproduced in my tank as well as others i.e. @RandyC

Hopefully, randy will have some more to give away soon. I received some last time and was very grateful for it.
 
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