Crabs, crabs, crabs...

[Nøjo]

I'm just curious as to how many crabs/snails/cleaners are recommended for a tank? I read yesterday that you want one hermit crab per gallon of tank, which I thought was far too many. I have a decent amount of cleaners so far yet still have bits of brown algae at the corners of my tank. I know that it depends on variables and such (live rock, etc) but what is generally thought of as a good number to have for a tank of my size?

 

[tecwzrd]

IMO 1 crabs/snails per 5 gal is usually more then enough. Some aquarist do stock 1 per gal but it requires a fairly mature tank with tons of lr to provide them with enough to graze on. Otherwise that many would starve if not supplement feed.

Also with crabs/snails make sure you have varying shells for them to migrate to when they get bigger. Usually your lfs will sell them for around 5 for $1 or possibly just give them away

Is your tank newly cycled? How many cleaners and what kind do you currently have?

 

[afilter]

I concur 1/gal is a bit much. 1/2 or 1/3 is probably more doable. Just because you have some brown algea do not assume you do not have a large enough clean up crew. Even is you had 1/gallon they will not take care of everything. At best you will still need to do an occassional glass cleaning if not daily.

 

[Nøjo]

Tecwzrd all my cleaners are in my signature text. And I was able to get some shells for the crabs to grow into, even though I'd rather they stayed small.

What I'm most mindful of is the amount of sand sifters that I have...really only the 4 nassarious snails. I don't know how many is suffienct and what amount is overkill.

 

[Brenden]

Check this guy out. I have bought 500 snails from him. Great sand stirrers and cheap. Out of 500 in two different shipments I had less than 5 DOA. FWIW I am located in the same state though. http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZatlanticreeftanks

 

[jasno999]

YEah I have way too many snails in my 10 gallon. I have the naseriuth type and I feed them with bits of raw shrimp to supplement their food. THey go crazy for the stuff and fight for it. I would be willign to trade some, sell some if anybody locally wanted them. I live near Philly

 

[tecwzrd]

Tecwzrd all my cleaners are in my signature text.

Signatures are currently turned off. I checked your “myinfo” button but it looks like FW info. What size is your SW tank?

I have about 12 Nassarius snails & 10 Cerith snails in my 55 gal and I haven’t had to supplement feed them. You could add a few more every couple of weeks and keep an eye on them. Personally I always drip acclimate them for around 2-3 hours before adding to the tank. Just watch closely for any deaths, they can foul a tank quickly if gone unnoticed for a couple of days.

 

[Nøjo]

Yeah I have a FW tank too, and I get really lazy updating that one...

I have a 60 gallon SW with about 90 lbs of live rock. I have 4 nassarius, 6 bumblebees, and 5 asterae snails at last count. I have the feeling I can add a couple more nassarius but that's about all I'm really interested in doing. Other than a few more shrimp (fire shrimp are too beautiful to pass up) I think my clean up crew is complete. Now it's time to get the corals started.

 

[ferretttt]

I bought snails from the same guy on eBay and none of them were DOA. In fact, I sold most of them to the LFS and got a cool anemone and some other stuff out of it. She still has many of them and all of her algae issues are gone too!