Too much??

[Scorpion]

is there such a thing as having too many snails and/or hermits in your tank? i was thinking about getting:

- 10 dwarf zebra hermits (left handed hermits)
- 10 blue leg hermits
- 10 red leg hermits
- 20 nasarius snails

our 33 gal tank has:
- 1 yellow tail blue damsel
- 2 false percula clowns
- 1 skunk cleaner shrimp
- 1 helmet cowfish

we have some hermits and snails now... but alot of them died/disappeared. not sure what happened to them.

[Canadian Man]

Well if you have too many then there is the risk of not having enough food for the critters.

[Scorpion]

well... the first time we bought them, we had a little bit of green hair algae growing. now... i have a lot of green hair algae and it's long. i've been told that they won't eat the algae if it's too long... so i've pulled most of it out by hand. i'm guessing i need more critters to eat the algae problem that i have.

[Canadian Man]

I find that my hermet's spend most of their cleaning time on the sand bed. they do crawl over the rocks but usually are picking at the sand bed.
My astrea and Turbo snails kick but when it comes to hair algae.
No my hermets don't seek out and destroy the snails

[MitchM]

Originally Posted by Scorpion

is there such a thing as having too many snails and/or hermits in your tank? i was thinking about getting:

- 10 dwarf zebra hermits (left handed hermits)
- 10 blue leg hermits
- 10 red leg hermits
- 20 nasarius snails

Yes, it is possible to have too many. Where did you get that list from? Is it part of a "clean-up crew"?
I've never understood where the numbers come from for those "clean-up crews". It always seems like too many critters.

In my 204g main tank, I think I have 3 hermits and 20 snails total.
Jon's right, if there's not enough food, they'll die.
You shouldn't be getting hair algae in there anyways, has your tank been up for long, and is there a chance that you may be overfeeding?
Detritus accumulation over time will contribute to hair algae growth.
Low calcium concentrations and/or unstable water conditions can lead to early snail death. Have you been testing your water?

Mitch

[Jack]

I find if you buy to many they die untill you reach a food - critter equilibrium.

[EmilyB]

[Scorpion]

Originally Posted by Carpentersreef

Yes, it is possible to have too many. Where did you get that list from? Is it part of a "clean-up crew"?
I've never understood where the numbers come from for those "clean-up crews". It always seems like too many critters.

In my 204g main tank, I think I have 3 hermits and 20 snails total.
Jon's right, if there's not enough food, they'll die.
You shouldn't be getting hair algae in there anyways, has your tank been up for long, and is there a chance that you may be overfeeding?
Detritus accumulation over time will contribute to hair algae growth.
Low calcium concentrations and/or unstable water conditions can lead to early snail death. Have you been testing your water?

Mitch

the tank has been up for about 7 months now. i feed my tank about 1/3 of a cube of brine a day. is that too much?

[MitchM]

No it shouldn't be, but my idea of a "cube" is one of those little 1/2" things out of what looks like an ice cube tray.
And a third of that isn't much at all.

Mitch

[MitchM]

I can't seem to find where you've posted your tank specs on the board here. Can you tell us about your system? Lights, how much LR, how much sand, if any, whether you have a sump or refugium, any regular maintenance that you do, water test results, ect?
Hair algae can be frustrating, and we can usually come up with a solution for your tank between all the regular members on this board here.
I'll post a hair algae link that some people have found useful:
http://reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=6997

Mitch