cleaner crew!

[jordsy]

I got a newbie question for you guys
Is it possible to have too many hermits, cleaner shrimp, snails, etc....
I love my inverts but I was just wondering if its bad to have to many

thx

[justinl]

yes you can have too many. they will evetually deplete your sand bed of all life (except bacteria) and you will then need to supplemetn feed them algae sheets or something. You might as well limit yourself so you don't need to feed them. if you let us know what your tank is like we could help you further.

[Pier Pressure]

Well if you have too many for the tank space they may start to starve to death because they cannot find enough food. I supplement mine with algae pellets a couple times a week just to be sure they are getting enough nutrition.

What size is your tank? And how many do you have? If you go to J&L Aquatics website, they have recommendations as to how many per gallon, etc. they recommend. You really gotta check out their website. Most comprehensive sale site I have ever seen.

I hope that helps!

[jordsy]

well i got a 90 gal tank, with a tang, wrasse, some chromies and a long nose butterfly. I got about 8 hermits, 1 cleaner shrimp, one sand sifter starfish, 3 large snails, and 2 conch snails.

I feed the fish twice a day with mysis shrimp cubes and I have algae sheets, but i think the fish eat most of it. Im also gettin some algae growth on the glass and live rock.

[jordsy]

whoa Jl aquatics say you need one crab per gallon!!! and one snail per gallon and a half. I doesnt seem like 90 crabs would go well..... but at least I know i can splurge on a few more

[christyf5]

At 90 crabs and 60 snails. Man those crabs would have such a feast.....

I think I have about 10-15 snails in my tank. No crabs, they just eat the snails anyways. Works for me

[Pier Pressure]

I went with the J&L recommended amount and have not run into any problems with them so far. Of course, I do not pull them out and count them every day so I am unsure as to how many of each I have left.

Really? My hermits are going to eat my snails? They have been in there together for a couple of months and I have not noticed anybody eating anybody else! However the snails are breeding so maybe they have become a crawling smorgasboard for the crabs.

Hmmm - I shall keep my eyes open and watch for that.

[fishmaster]

I have the J&L's 50-60gal custodian package in my 55. I am running tap water for now and have had no problems with algae. They keep it spotless. The blue hermits are by far the best cleaners in the tank. They do kill each other from time to time. They will kill a snail if given the chance-ie; a turbo falls on it's back. The certh snails are very tough against them as they have a trap door on their shells. I don't think they are causing any negative effects to my sand bed. If anything, they eat any leftover food & mix the top laver. I also have tonnes of pods in the tank. I also have an emerald crab the eat any macro that sprouts up. Seems to work for me.
Shaun.