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Cleanup Crew Needed

patchin

patchin

Supporting Member
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I'm looking to seriously bolster my cleanup crew. Any advice about the best place to buy them, either locally or online? Also looking for best place for Elos kits. Dr Foster has decent prices, but buying from a LFS would be better. Thanks.
Steve
 
so there was this guy in Sunnyvale that sold CUC super cheap; $5 pepp. shrimp, $1.5 hermits & snails, etc. I'm trying to dig up his info I'll let you know if I find him. I too need to replenish my CUC soon.
 
Reefcleaners.org seems to have decent prices, and if you want primarily snails good shipping rates (they don't next-day snails). I can't say anything about their quality though, as I never ordered anything online.
 
I am slowly switching my clean up crew. I'm getting rid of hermits (keep killing snail, even with extra shells in the tank) by feeding them to the mantis. I am also getting rid of turbo Snails, they keep knocking corals off rocks. Asterina Snails are OK but I'm tired of flipping them back over. Trochus Snails and Margarita Snails is what will be the bulk of my clean up crew soon. I also like my Serpent star and nesserus Snails. I'm over the urchin too, he and the giant brittle star are going to the lfs on sat
 
I prefer LFS if possible. Good to support them. You see exactly what you get. Etc.
But it sure seems like most are out of stock on Trochus all the time.

I had one good and one annoying experience with reefcleaners.
The annoying one was that they forgot to put a "no signature" on the delivery, so I had to
leave work early and hit the post office.
 
I've ordered from Reefcleaners before. He will give you way more than you order. I ordered 12 of the dwarf ceriths when I first set up my tank and he sent me well over 100. 2 years later and I am still finding those on occassion in rocks or climbing up my glass.
 
Margaritas never lived for me. All about trochus. Aquatic collection keeps them in stock. Local over Internet EVERYDAY! Hermits are not for me either. Agree with griz, they are murderous bastards in general. Ne'er trust a crab in a reef tank!
 
Yup. Just added 4 more trochus yesterday and I found another Hermit killing one today. Mr mantis is well fed this week. I have a couple red hermits who seem well behaved but they are nocturnal. My Halloween hermits continue to be model citizens but they seem to like different shells.
 
I've used Reefcleaners.org for all my clean up crews. John (the owner) is super nice and has great customer service. He will send you WAY more than you order, so I usually order a bit less than I need. You really can't be the prices and if you order one of the CUC packages, then 2 day priority shipping is free. I've never had an issue with the 2-day shipping. I've ordered from there at least 3 times and all my snails have arrived alive and kicking! :)
 
Dang, looks like they only have what I don't like.
Dwarf Ceriths : Most were too small to be useful.
Nerite : Good while they survuved, but always seemed to climb up and out of the water, then dry out and die.
 
Some of those "cleaner" sites are Florida collected items primarily I think, which might be why they have limited types of snails, I could be wrong but I don't care if I am :p

The other day I stuck a big tiger cowrie in my tank, anyone else keeping one of these guys?
Click to expand...

According to a couple sites...
This species is also fond of eating soft corals, anemones, sponges, sea stars and sea urchins.
Click to expand...

I have one of these in my tank, kind of just threw it for kicks and giggles and occasionally see him on the glass at night but that's it.
 
Yeah, Reefcleaners is Florida collected snails, so they only have Florida species. I like the normal size ceriths and nassarius though. My nerites do a great job and since I have a lid, I don't have them on my floor all the time now.
 
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