musclebenz
Supporting Member
where is the best place to purchase cleaning crews (snails and crabs) in the Bay Area?
Cleaning crews
- Thread starter musclebenz
- Start date
Coral reefer
Past President
Where do you live?
Any of the good stores have plenty of options. Where are you located? However, the better question is what do you need in a cleaning crew. What do you have in yyour tank and what's going on with it?
Coral reefer
Past President
Ps, never trust a crab!
Yep -- I refuse to do any type of crab in my tanks. Hermits and snails are the perfect match for a store to sell you because they know the hermits will kill all the snails and then you continually have to buy more. Emeralds and others are opportunistic fish and shrimp feeders. That being said I'll buy a SMALL emerald crab occasionally if I get a patch of bubble lagae in the sps dominate tank. Then toss him in the sump a few days later when he's done his job.
Vincerama2
Guest
I bought some snails online at Salty Underground when I bought some expensive and probably now dead Berghia Nudibranchs. Astrea snails, and I was shocked that they are actually doing a good job. I should have bought more (I bought 20 and maybe 2-5 of them died).
Having said that ... they were shipped overnight FedEx and luckily, I have a Ring doorbell because the FedEx guy came to the door, put the package down SIDEWAYS, even though the box said "fragile, this side up" but luckily the bags weren't leaking into the cups they were shipped in... and he didn't ring the doorbell or anything. Had I not been anxiously awaiting their arrival, they would have frozen on the doorstep.
Salty Underground is good, FedEx is not (for this anyway).
V
Having said that ... they were shipped overnight FedEx and luckily, I have a Ring doorbell because the FedEx guy came to the door, put the package down SIDEWAYS, even though the box said "fragile, this side up" but luckily the bags weren't leaking into the cups they were shipped in... and he didn't ring the doorbell or anything. Had I not been anxiously awaiting their arrival, they would have frozen on the doorstep.
Salty Underground is good, FedEx is not (for this anyway).
V
musclebenz
Supporting Member
I live near Palo Alto but will travel to SF, East Bay or South Bay. I have a 120 tank and need to add in a cleaning crew to reduce waste.
Vincerama2
Guest
Just FYI, cleaning crews convert one type of "waste" into another. Snails will eat algae (which isn't waste) and converts it into snail poop. However, that's not a bad tradeoff if you have a good skimmer as you can skim out dissolving poop, but can't skim out algae growing on a rock.
Sorry I can't be of much help, haven't shopped around for a "crew" in a while. Online is always an option, but it's nice to support our local stores.
V
Is the tank dirty? Is there some particular area that's having issues? Are you having issues with a particular type of algae or cyano? Is it an issue on the sand? The glass? On the rocks? And I'm not trying to be difficult, but often people just toss clean up crews in because they feel they "need" them. There are so many different types and species that each have their own niche and just spending money without a plan in mind doesn't make sense.
The basics that I use are pretty simple -- and then I add inverts as needed depending on particular issues. I start with two species of snails as the primary cleaners. Trochus because they have a fiarly unique ability among "climbing' snails to turn themselves over when they fall and not just die, and then Nassarius snails to stir the sand. One eats algae and the other will eat leftover food. If I want a tireless worker on the glass I add a couple Mexican Turbos, but you have to turn them over fairly often so I don't recommend them for people who aren't home. Then -- depending on what fish you have -- you may want to add a couple of cleaner or fire shrimp. Again they'll eat leftovers before they just decay. In an SPS tank I always keep a couple of Tuxedo urchins as well, but not in a tank with a lot of LPS and softies. Astreas will eat hair algae until it gets long and then won't touch it. The list goes on and on -- which is why I asked.
The basics that I use are pretty simple -- and then I add inverts as needed depending on particular issues. I start with two species of snails as the primary cleaners. Trochus because they have a fiarly unique ability among "climbing' snails to turn themselves over when they fall and not just die, and then Nassarius snails to stir the sand. One eats algae and the other will eat leftover food. If I want a tireless worker on the glass I add a couple Mexican Turbos, but you have to turn them over fairly often so I don't recommend them for people who aren't home. Then -- depending on what fish you have -- you may want to add a couple of cleaner or fire shrimp. Again they'll eat leftovers before they just decay. In an SPS tank I always keep a couple of Tuxedo urchins as well, but not in a tank with a lot of LPS and softies. Astreas will eat hair algae until it gets long and then won't touch it. The list goes on and on -- which is why I asked.
Vincerama2
Guest
Oh, yeah ... aside from helping eat stuff, snails are in themselves kind of fun to have in the tank. Astrea snails are great and inexpensive, but as mentioned, once they are flipped (on sand) they can't right themselves without help. I think that in their natural environment if they fell, they land on rock and not sand so they can flip over. In our tanks, without big waves and with sand beds, they tend to just die before we notice them.
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