Help replenishing my clean up crew

[cancun]

Hi all! Everyone I need so advice....!! I had 4 small snail...brittle star...peppermint shrimp. ..and a cleaner shrimp as my cuc....all of my snails have died so I was wondering how important is a cuc....? Also what about a sand sifting sea star? Sea cucumber? Some to really clean the sand....any ideas? Also I have had some red legged hermit crabs....but they seemed to be very aggressive. ..so I never got any more crabs....any thoughts on crabs? I have heard people say crabs have attackedvtheir fish....star fish....etc....any help would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!!

 

[Rmckoy]

Is there a chance the hermit killed the snails for their shells ?
That is a very popular issue .
They are very aggressive .
I personally don't like snails .
I don't have any sand sifting cucumbers or starfish .

 

[mr_X]

You don't need a clean up crew. It's not important at all. Sand sifting starfish will starve to death in your tank and your sand bed will remain dirty. Increase the flow a bit so that particulate matter doesn't fall to the bottom.

 

[Keithhjs]

Cucumbers get their nutrition from the water column. They usually find their happy spot and stay there and not move around. They do not consume detritus, algae, and whatnot like most cuc members do.

 

[MJSerik]

I think CUC help with little things, IME.

 

[bribo12]

Cucumbers get their nutrition from the water column. They usually find their happy spot and stay there and not move around. They do not consume detritus, algae, and whatnot like most cuc members do.

Only filter feeding cucs get their food this way. The sand sifting ones eat micro fauna and detritus. However like stated earlier a cuc is not needed. Also, don't make the same post in multiple categories. It gets quite confusing

 

[Keithhjs]

Only filter feeding cucs get their food this way. The sand sifting ones eat micro fauna and detritus. However like stated earlier a cuc is not needed. Also, don't make the same post in multiple categories. It gets quite confusing

Yeah I only mentioned the cucumber. My apologies if it seemed I was referring to other cuc livestock.

 

[bribo12]

Yeah I only mentioned the cucumber. My apologies if it seemed I was referring to other cuc livestock.

No sorry I meant there are cucumbers that eat from the sandbed lol. Sorry I guess I shoulda abbreviated cucumber cuke instead of cuc lol.