Clean up crew really necesary?

[Little Luey]

We have all heard about the importance of a good clean up crew and to tell you the thruth, I think some of the crew packages are way too many creatures for our tanks. Not to mention the fact that crabs are hunters and will kill some snails and themselves, it just seem to me like a never ending cycle, buy them, get kill, buy again just to get killed.
Is it safe to say that if we try to eliminate the algie we could get away with a minimum crew? I got 3 turbos on my BB 20 gal (from the original 5)and they keep up with eating the algie. I clean the glass and they do the rocks. I also trim the macro once in a while.
I don't like having to spend money on them either, I prefer to get a coral or fish instead.
The rule of 1 snail per galon and 1 crab for 2 galons seem too rigid to me. And then we have the sand shifter crews, which I would think they eat the fauna in the live sand becoming not so live sand after a while. Many fish will do this also so it is realy woth it?

Things that make you go hummm!

[Witfull]

there are no rules...except one...crabs are evil~

[mps9506]

This again is one of those rules that is different for every tank. Your clean up crew is going to depend on your bioload, feeding habits, light intensity etc.
I found in my 40 gallon tank I needed to keep about 5-10 astreas and a handful of blue legged hermits (Stop cringing witty )
In the 144 we setup in november I keep about 50 astreas, 25 ceriths and probably 50 or so blue legs. Yeah, the crabs pick off snails here and there but this tank is more heavily fed and doesn't have the water quality of my 40gallon. The 144 is heavily stocked with rocks, and the water movement isn't quite as good. The 40 was very lightly stocked and had excellent water flow.
Different situations require different cleanup crews.

[Little Luey]

Does anyone else think of the clean up crew as a necesary evil?
It is very different for me to loose a fish compared to lossing a snail/crab, why does it seem that unimportant?

[jkhalliday76]

Not sure Little Luey...I think it depends on the person. I'm a sap for any living creature. I thought my Astraea snail was dead yesterday and I felt like a horrible mom! I was pretty sad.... (of course snails are all I have at this early stage in my tank) - so maybe I'll feel differently once I get fish (doubt it though). Luckily my snail was playing dead ~

[cracker]

What does your cleanup crew consist of now the tank has been up for a year?

[Gina]

I like having snails in the tank. Astreas and turbos for cleaning the rocks and back of the aquarium that I can't clean well enough. I don't keep the recommed amount though.
I have 2 hermit crabs and they spend thier time cleaning up any debris sitting on the rock not eaten by the fish.

[Cougra]

Originally Posted by Little Luey

Does anyone else think of the clean up crew as a necesary evil?
It is very different for me to loose a fish compared to lossing a snail/crab, why does it seem that unimportant?

Personally, I don't like the term "Clean Up Crew" at all. I believe they are good scavengers but they don't really clean the tank, merely recycle stuff that needs to be removed from the tank. Because this is a closed system, nothing, and I mean nothing can replace good regular tank maintenance. Snails eat algae, they don't clean it out of the tank. Hermits eat left over food but don't remove it from the tank. All these animals ADD to the bio-load in the tank and they add to the necessity to properly CLEAN the tank not recycle the nutrients already in it.

I personally would prefer the snails, starfish, crabs, worms, feather dusters, etc as a scavenger crew so people don't get them confused with them actually cleaning the tank.

Do I think they are necessary to have in a tank, the answer is a simple "No." Do I use them, yes because I like the look of the snails and my tank can provide enough food for the ones I have. However I don't rely on them to clean anything, nor do I think they do a great job keeping algae at bay or anything like that. I just like the look of the snail trails through the bit of green algae that I allow to grow on the side glass for them.

[goldenmean]

I like my clean up crew.

The crabs have killed a couple of the nassarius snails but have not touched the astreas. When they kill a snail they move into the shell.

They way I look at it in a reef aquarium I am trying to create an entire ecosystem. Ecosystems have a food chain. My tank is realy starting to develope a lot of pods crawling on the LR and sand. They too are part of the food chain.

Dont get me wrong, i did give the hermits empty shells so they could move into new and larger homes and leave the snails alone. But i did loose some snails. That is the nature of life and that is just one of the things that our aquariums can teach us.

I even saw two of the blue leg hermits fight each other for a shell and the loser ran into the rocks with out a shell. I put some empty shells near the spot in the rocks he retreated to.

I really like watching my 2 skarlet skunk cleaner shrimp. They too are part of the clean up crew.
Just 2 days ago I saw one of the shrimp going to town on the exoskelton of of one of the blue leg hermits. Had I not seen that I might not have even realized that one of the crabs had molted.

I discover something new in my tank every day and my clean up crew is a part of the journey of discovery.

[Little Luey]

I'll admit that two crabs figthing is fun to watch, but just like Cougra said, they really do not clean the tank for me, so why have a ton of them, in a small tank like a 20gal I have to be carefull how the tank is stocked, if I have to many snails/crabs it will limit the amount of fish I can have, I only have 2 as it is. And my tank is relatibly algie free (knock on wood) , and I feed very lightly so it could not support the regular crews the LFS sell.

[goldenmean]

Your clean up crew eats more than just algae.
They also feed on detritus and some help aerate the sandbed.
Someones gotta pick up all the fish doo-doo. I sure dont want to.

[cheeks69]

A reef needs herbivores whether it's fish, snails, crabs Urchins etc. without them our tanks would quickly be overtaken by algea. Now are some of the reef packages a bit much ? Yes they are, especially Mexican Turbos ! These snails need ALOT of algea and IME as the tank matures and the algea problems go away they'll starve. I have 2 turbo Mexican Turbo snails in my tank and that's more than enough for me.

[jumpincactus]

Asking if a few snails and some crabs are really necassary in the reefs we keep is like percieiving a nest without a bird, or a sky without a sun. As someone mentioned earlier the cycle of life travels in circles. I do not buy into the cleaner crew bit that most LFS would have you believe that your tank cannot live without them. But I do believe this, Fools Crow said many years ago that Power travels in circles. The eagle builds his nest in a circle, most birds do. The wind swirls in circles. Mans life cycle travels in circles, from infancy to aduthood to old age and then completes the circle back to infancy again. The moon is round, the sun is round, Power travels in circles, as is the cycle of life on the reef.

If anything should be said about "Cleaner Crews" I would say this, when they are no longer part of a living reef system we as humans have taken the edge of the envelope too far.

AHO Mitakuye Oyasin

[klc317]

I have many nassarius and turbo snails, hermit crabs, emerald crabs, and conchs in both of my tanks. IMO I enjoy watching them just as much as the fish and corals. When I feed you really see the tank coming alive with snails popping up everyhwere out of the sand, hermits grabbing all the food they can that fall, and all kinds of little critters running around eating. I really do like seeing them work. I provide my hermits with a pile of shells that I buy in the craft dept. at Walmart in a bag for $3 and that seems to make them leave the snails alone for the most part. Everything spends all day and night eating off the rocks and sand and although it may be a small portion of the cleaning and maintaining that I do it is very fun to watch. The funniest thing is that I have 3 BTAs that have split off of one and have moved to different areas of the tank. Each one has an emerald crab sitting under it during the day. I didn't know that emerald crabs adopt anemones as shelter. A clownfish on top and a crab underneath the anemone. Thats a little bit of fun nature happening in my aquarium.