Clean-up crew

[Charlie]

My 46gal FOWLR seems to be fully cycled. Ammonia, nitrite & nitrate are zero. Before I put in a few clowns and a blenny or two I was thinking of adding a clean-up crew.

I looked at packages on liveaquaria.com but haven't a clue where to start. Crabs, snails, cucumbers,nubibranch(sp) sea stars, brittle stars, who knows.

Here is the packages I was looking at: http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/s...cfm?pCatId=420

Got any suggestions?

[Bearfan]

Scarlet hermits and nassarius are my favorites, but I also have blue legged, a few turbos and astreas.

[Charlie]

Are stars, cucumbers and/or nudibranchs a good idea too?

[Devilishturtles]

Stars, cucs, and nudibranchs are a bit more sensitive. I'd go with some snails (nassarius/llynassa snails rock) and hermits to start. I have blue-legged hermits, one scarlet, and a few astreas. My hermits ate every single one of my 50 llynassa snails and turbo snails...then moved into their shells. A lot of people just don't get hermits for this reason, so its completely up to you. IMO, good reccomendations from Bearfan.

[roka64]

Stars, cucs, and nudibranchs are a bit more sensitive. I'd go with some snails (nassarius/llynassa snails rock) and hermits to start

I agree. Those critters might need a little bit more of an established tank. I use that page to get an idea of what I wanted, and just reduced the number of each. I put about 3 set of 12 different snails in my 55G. I need more but, that has helped for now. On the hermits, they will kill your snails, if the snail's shell is bigger. I would suggest getting a few hermits and make sure you purchase some bigger, empty shells either from LFS or possibly a craft store.