Clean Up Crew

[Myka]

In my 90 I have 1 Black Brittle Starfish (3 years old), 3 Astraea snails (3 species, 1 is 4 years old), 1 Trochus snail, 1 Blue Tuxedo Urchin, 2 Fighting Conches, 1 Emerald Crab, and a Hector's Goby sifting the sand.

The Emerald crabs don't seem to live long...maybe 4 months? I have several tanks, and I move the critters around to keep them well fed.

Those little snails you're talking about aren't necessarily Stomatella, nor snail babies. They are probably Collonista snails which stay small.

For GlobalDesigns, I would like to see how many of those poor starfish are still alive in a year. Echinoderms in Aquaria by Ronald L. Shimek

Originally Posted by naesco

No if you have a bit of cyno it would likely be a flow, lighting or water quality issue. Don't worry about it simply siphon it out. It is ok to have one or two hermit crabs in a tank. They look cool and are fun to watch but they are predators and eat all same good stuff your fish and coral eat. A few snails are good but if you have too many which most reefers have, they starve to death and pollute the tank with a net negative rather than a net positive. Typically though, a clean up crew (CUC) is simply a marketing way for a LFS to sell ya more stuff IMO,

Agreed.