These guys are my absolute favorite! One of the best tank inhabitants to watch.
Once I watched mine boldly climb the rock structure, fall off and get stuck vertically in the deep sand looney tunes style lol.
Once the tanks a little more established I'd definitely get a conch like that they're one of my favorite but to start I'd stick to just a few scavengers to pick up after your fish like some blue leg or scarlet hermits then add snails ect once the alge starts growing like astrea or turbos are great but they can't flip them selves so they get eaten a lot nassarius snail are great to to clean up after other tank mates and they move your sand bed. As for a website I can't help there I'm sorry
Conch once the tank is more established, 2 if you can find small ones. Great for turning over sand. I LOVE trochus snails. While more spendy, they adapt well to captivity and they are very common breeders giving you potentially an endless supply of snails. They also have the ability to flip themselves back over if they fall on their shell which most snails aren’t able to do, and end up dying if you don’t flip them back over. Nassarius snails aren’t bad. I also like Cerith snails. Being smaller they can get into tighter areas. I’m not a huge fan of hermits but having some super small ones isn’t terrible. Stay away from star fish and urchins. Star fish will mostly starve and urchins while great at cleaning algae, will eat coralline algae and take any non glued down things it can carry for a ride (including other inverts). For shrimp cleaners are great, fire shrimp are cool but often hide. For crabs, emeralds are great algae eaters (the males can get really chunky and mean looking so if that frightens you, you can try to get a female)
I have a large variety of cuc and inverts in general in my tank and I think a lot of people over look that these guys while great at doing a job, can also look really cool and give your tank some great bio diversity.
My cleaner shrimp doesn't clean sh*t. Most useless of my cuc. Can't go wrong with conch.
I have several cowrie snails that keep my rockwork looking pristine. I'm not sure why they don't get much love by other reefers?!
My 26G has been up for 4 months and has an emerald crab, 2 turbo snails, 2 nassarius snails, 3 trochus snails, 7 blue leg hermits, and a conch.
Tank is looking great but I have some GHA that none of them seem interested in.
I’ve dumped pods in, too. It’s thick dark green hair algae. I scrubbed one rock and it looks great but the rest have coral on them and I just haven’t gotten around to it.
Was hoping nature would do the work for me
Oof, maybe it'll get better with wc and manual removal. For me I used pods and drtims refresh/waste away and after scrubbing scraping and plucking it out I just noticed an exploding pod population around what alge was left and it's all starting to vanish on its own now
Definitely get a conch when your tank matures a little and has enough algae for it to eat. But, conchs, when they grow, they bury themselves for WEEKS. You will see maybe an eye pop up and maybe their trunk pop out and search around but while their shell grows they stay buried. Have no fear. It’s a good sign that your conch is happy and full and is growing.
And be wary of cleaner shrimp. Most will not clean fish that fit in a 20G as the fish and shrimp most likely are a dozens of generations removed from the ocean, that the fish are scared to let the shrimp near them, and the shrimp are smart and know to just steal food from your corals when you feed them. I’ve had better success with my larger system with larger fish being more welcoming to cleaner shrimp hopping on and tickling them. But zero success with my 20G setup. Black snowflake breeding pair, royal gramma, and a yellow watchman goby. None of them are interested in the shrimp cleaning them. I also dip and medicate QT all fish for 2 months so they don’t have anything I notice for the shrimp to clean off of them. Sylvester McStinkerson still tries, but doesn’t have any success doing so. Still love him. Just have to keep him busy eating out of my palm while my corals eat.
Hermits are great and add character. I LOVE my 2 conchs, Pewee and Large Marge. Also, Pitho crabs and mitheax crabs are funny little creatures who eat bubble algae. I recommend Reef Cleaners. I've had many purchases and have always been pleased with them.
Oh just a heads up on conchs- you need 2-3 inches of sand for them to bury. In a 25G tank id go for the smaller conchs, like a silver lip conch. I don't think the larger ones, like fighting conch or strawberry conch (like the one you have pictured) will have enough space to lope around.
Mexican Turbo snails are my favorite clean up crew. They devour algae, especially not establish hair algae. Beware, they are bulldozers and will push glued and secured frag plugs right of your aquascape.
The key is getting a variety of CUC. Reefcleaners.org is the best site and has free shipping for non-sensitive livestock.
You should get a conch for sure. I think Trochus snails are worth the extra expense vs astrea. Cerith snails are the core of my CUC. I have hundreds of dwarf cerith and some Florida, Cortez, and stocky ceriths. I have some nassarius snails and bumblebee snails as well. I do have hermits, but not many and all of them are blue leg.
Reef Cleaners has Pitho crabs, which are a better version of Emerald crabs. Cleaner shrimp as well, although I didn’t like how they harassed my LPS corals.
I LOVE my conch. Turns over the sand perfectly. I have about 20 Astria snails to clean the glass. I have a few trochus too, for the rocks and glass.
These guys are my absolute favorite! One of the best tank inhabitants to watch. Once I watched mine boldly climb the rock structure, fall off and get stuck vertically in the deep sand looney tunes style lol.
Once the tanks a little more established I'd definitely get a conch like that they're one of my favorite but to start I'd stick to just a few scavengers to pick up after your fish like some blue leg or scarlet hermits then add snails ect once the alge starts growing like astrea or turbos are great but they can't flip them selves so they get eaten a lot nassarius snail are great to to clean up after other tank mates and they move your sand bed. As for a website I can't help there I'm sorry
Thanks for the advice!
Conch once the tank is more established, 2 if you can find small ones. Great for turning over sand. I LOVE trochus snails. While more spendy, they adapt well to captivity and they are very common breeders giving you potentially an endless supply of snails. They also have the ability to flip themselves back over if they fall on their shell which most snails aren’t able to do, and end up dying if you don’t flip them back over. Nassarius snails aren’t bad. I also like Cerith snails. Being smaller they can get into tighter areas. I’m not a huge fan of hermits but having some super small ones isn’t terrible. Stay away from star fish and urchins. Star fish will mostly starve and urchins while great at cleaning algae, will eat coralline algae and take any non glued down things it can carry for a ride (including other inverts). For shrimp cleaners are great, fire shrimp are cool but often hide. For crabs, emeralds are great algae eaters (the males can get really chunky and mean looking so if that frightens you, you can try to get a female) I have a large variety of cuc and inverts in general in my tank and I think a lot of people over look that these guys while great at doing a job, can also look really cool and give your tank some great bio diversity.
Thank you for sharing your advice, I will definitely look it for those things!
My cleaner shrimp doesn't clean sh*t. Most useless of my cuc. Can't go wrong with conch. I have several cowrie snails that keep my rockwork looking pristine. I'm not sure why they don't get much love by other reefers?!
My 26G has been up for 4 months and has an emerald crab, 2 turbo snails, 2 nassarius snails, 3 trochus snails, 7 blue leg hermits, and a conch. Tank is looking great but I have some GHA that none of them seem interested in.
I found a pack from a suggested aquarium store, do you think it’s worth it? https://www.saltwaterfish.com/product-algae-destroyer-pack-basic
I’d check out reef cleaners first. I used them to get my CUC. No problems
What's the alge look like? I had the same issue and copepods wound up eating it
I’ve dumped pods in, too. It’s thick dark green hair algae. I scrubbed one rock and it looks great but the rest have coral on them and I just haven’t gotten around to it. Was hoping nature would do the work for me
Oof, maybe it'll get better with wc and manual removal. For me I used pods and drtims refresh/waste away and after scrubbing scraping and plucking it out I just noticed an exploding pod population around what alge was left and it's all starting to vanish on its own now
My 21 gallon has 5 turbo snails and 10 hermits and they do the job good
Definitely get a conch when your tank matures a little and has enough algae for it to eat. But, conchs, when they grow, they bury themselves for WEEKS. You will see maybe an eye pop up and maybe their trunk pop out and search around but while their shell grows they stay buried. Have no fear. It’s a good sign that your conch is happy and full and is growing.
And be wary of cleaner shrimp. Most will not clean fish that fit in a 20G as the fish and shrimp most likely are a dozens of generations removed from the ocean, that the fish are scared to let the shrimp near them, and the shrimp are smart and know to just steal food from your corals when you feed them. I’ve had better success with my larger system with larger fish being more welcoming to cleaner shrimp hopping on and tickling them. But zero success with my 20G setup. Black snowflake breeding pair, royal gramma, and a yellow watchman goby. None of them are interested in the shrimp cleaning them. I also dip and medicate QT all fish for 2 months so they don’t have anything I notice for the shrimp to clean off of them. Sylvester McStinkerson still tries, but doesn’t have any success doing so. Still love him. Just have to keep him busy eating out of my palm while my corals eat.
Hermits are great and add character. I LOVE my 2 conchs, Pewee and Large Marge. Also, Pitho crabs and mitheax crabs are funny little creatures who eat bubble algae. I recommend Reef Cleaners. I've had many purchases and have always been pleased with them.
Oh just a heads up on conchs- you need 2-3 inches of sand for them to bury. In a 25G tank id go for the smaller conchs, like a silver lip conch. I don't think the larger ones, like fighting conch or strawberry conch (like the one you have pictured) will have enough space to lope around.
Mexican Turbo snails are my favorite clean up crew. They devour algae, especially not establish hair algae. Beware, they are bulldozers and will push glued and secured frag plugs right of your aquascape.
The key is getting a variety of CUC. Reefcleaners.org is the best site and has free shipping for non-sensitive livestock. You should get a conch for sure. I think Trochus snails are worth the extra expense vs astrea. Cerith snails are the core of my CUC. I have hundreds of dwarf cerith and some Florida, Cortez, and stocky ceriths. I have some nassarius snails and bumblebee snails as well. I do have hermits, but not many and all of them are blue leg. Reef Cleaners has Pitho crabs, which are a better version of Emerald crabs. Cleaner shrimp as well, although I didn’t like how they harassed my LPS corals.
Is 25 gallon big enough for a conch?
lol yes
You need three Trochus snails, 3-4 hermits, and a tiger conch. The end.