What size cleanup crew is appropriate?

[Maurice2]

Thank you Malkore, I appreciate your comments.

Switzerland is landlocked and our livestock comes principally from the Indian Ocean (Thailand, Maldives, ...) and some from the Phillipines. This translates into, at best, a 48H journey for the fish, something like Manilla-Bangkok-Delhi-Frankfurt-Zürich-Geneva. On a route like that, 12 hours delay here or there is the norm and my LFS reckons that 50% attrition is par for the course. The result is that star snails are $2 and a hermit crab is around 20$. Should someone like to be really frightened, a juvenile Pomacanthus Imperator (3 inches) runs at 100$ and once in 20 years, if you're lucky, you can pick up a Scott's Fairy Wrasse at $700.

Originally Posted by Brenden

Stick with astrea, nassarius, cerith snails. Red and blue hermits and possibly a conch. The sand sifter gobies and stars are not a smart purchase at this time. I would probably do around 75 snails and 25 hermits

astrea, nassarius and cerith are rarer than hen's teeth but my LFS promised that he'd try and persuade a supplier. It would appear that some shellfish are venemous and the fishermen avoid anything with which they're not completely familiar.

Now to the upside. On your advice, my LFS sold me 10 star snails and I'm quite delighted with the work they're doing scoffing diatom. They only had 1 hermit left and he's doing his best with the gunge on the sand, you've all given me the best pointers I've had since I started

Special thanks to roca64, who explained the correlation between diatom and light, like everything, so simple when a kind soul spells it out to you

@tecwzrd: Followed your advice, 2H drip, 100% success. GJ