Clean-up Crews

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hahaha lol.My mom wants to know if we could get a starfish,can we??

x2 emerald crabs
x5 bumblebee snails
x5 nassarius snails
x1 .................. starfish
and purple lobster?????
 
I would not get a starfish until your tank was at least 8 months old. They need a more mature tank to have any chance of it to Survive.
You can get brittle stars as part of your cleanup crew.
 
Again your tank is very young to house a purple lobster. They need a stable tank, ie: salinity, PH and temp. So I would wait on the purple lobster also. It will also make short order of your bottom dwelling animals, fish and inverts as it is most active at night when the others are sleeping and an easy target.
 
I agree with TC that some more time is needed. Just a word of wisdom here that if you are getting the reef lobster to be seen forget it. I have seen mine about 6 times in the last seven yrs. They only come out when the lights go out.
 
OK thanks guys so I don't think I'll go with the purple lobster and wait on the starfish.What kind of starfish should I get if I were to get one?
 
So this is not a reef tank, right? If not a Chocalate chip star is very hardy.
 
This is a FOWLR so ya it's not a reef. :? So I should go with the chocolate chip starfish and that could be part of my clean up crew?
 
okay listen you have a 75 gal tank. That is pretty big. My friend had one and he had at least 2 or 3 emeralds, 15 scarlet hermits and 15 blue leg hermits also about 4 or 5 turbos and even an algae blenny which helped with that. you do have a very nice array of fish in there which is awesome but you do need a nice clean up crew to clean up their mess. also 4 or 5 astrea snails are great i have a couple in my tank and they do work wonders i will say that.

as for the star fish, these guys are right in letting your tank mature before you add them if you have sand then i would recommend sand sifting stars which help get rid of fish waste that settles on the bottom of the tank

if you do have any problems with an over growth of algae since the tank is new i would recommend a flame-tail blenny. I had my troubles with algae and ive had this fish for a lil over a month and it really does eat that stuff up. Just a thought

Hope your tank flourishes like it should
 
So then it should look like this:

x2-3 emerald crabs
x5 bumblebee snails
x5 nassarius snails
x1 sand-sifting star
 
So this is good:

x2-3 emerald crabs
x6 bumblebee snails
x4 nassarius snails
x2 scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp
x1 camel shrimp
 
If you are getting shrimp then you will need to make sure and drop the Hawknose from your final fish list. They will make a meal of those lovely shrimp.

As for the clean up crew I've never been a fan of the bumblebee snails they have a nasty rep for eating other snails. Hermits will do the same thing for the shells. BTW good rule of thumb for your final clean up crew (at full fish load) is 1 cleaner per gallon of water. Eventually you will have a total of 70-80 snails ect in your system. Also keep in mind that the clean up crew is something that you will be replacing through out the life of the system. Nature after all is nature and you will have some loss no matter what you do. I got the the point of adding a dozen or more snails to my system every other month.
 
So I could have hermits instead of snails?Instead could I have...say...dwarf zebra hermits and electric orange hermits?Like this:

2-3 emerald crabs
5 dwarf zebra hermit crabs
5 electric orange hermit crabs
2 scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp
1 camel shrimp
Is this good???
Oh and ya I am scratching off the hawknose.
I LOVE SW CRABS!!!!!!!!I would like to have as many as I'm allowed(with full fish stocking)!!!
 
The Hawaiian zebra hermits are good because they are Herbivores.
 
Alright!!!!!!Awesome lovin' this list!!! :D So this is good:

x2-3 emerald crabs
x5 zebra hermit crabs
x5 electric orange hermit crabs
x2 scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp
x1 camel shrimp or could I go with a peppermint shrimp?
 
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