pex Posted October 18, 2011 Share Posted October 18, 2011 I like my two hermits, a halloween and an electric blue (named Anna Phyllactic and Al Lergia, respectively. The girlfriend has shellfish allergies, hence the names.) I just really like their looks. I also love Mr. Happy, my spider conch. He's great at sifting the sand and eating the detritus. I always thought they mainly ate algae and diatoms, but recently read a study done by someone at UC Santa Cruz, I believe, stating that fenced off areas of tanks with conchs had a much lower level of detritus, somewhere close to the order of 90 percent, than other similar areas that they couldn't reach, while levels of vegetation hadn't changed nearly that much. Kind of interesting to learn. Oh ya, and my skunk cleaner, Bob (short for Shish'ka Bob), sorta has ADHD and is very entertaining to watch when he's active. My yellow tang, Tango (full name: Tango Ray), won't let him near cuz Bob will swim out to the middle of the tank to jump him and try to get some cleaning nibblins in. I guess Tango thinks Bob is just a little too excited to get close to him... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandinga Posted October 21, 2011 Share Posted October 21, 2011 Brittle stars...the gray ones. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRAZY4LPS Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 Halloween Urchins or a Blue tuxedo Urchin! Both do an amazing job and look badass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jozee Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 I have a mix of turbo snails, Astreas and hermits - they seem to be doing a bangup job. I also have a huge green brittle star named Lurch ~ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharoleb Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 FYI - Upscales has a bunch of red banded trochus snails right now. I just picked up several yesterday. IMHO they are the best snails, and I don't seem them in stores too much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omarortiz Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 I am a big fan of Trochus snails as well. But, whenever I get Astrea snails, most of them become murder victims, and the hermits always leave one witness behind for some reason. I also have a watchman goby that does an excellent job sifting sand, but he does not play well with others. He also occasionally redecorates the tank and carries hermits, snails and smaller pieces of rubble around in his mouth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
omarortiz Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 I kind of like these random surveys to see what other people do with their tanks. I am wondering if you would start one on treating of ich sometime in the future. I know I have my own method but I am curious to see what other people do. Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cirenus Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 I'm a big fan of the nassarius snails, they sift the sand and pick up any left overs. However, it takes a ton of them to really make a difference in my 55g tank. I have a Astrea snail who does ok, and I had 4 turbo snails, but 2 of them have died recently =/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garrett Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 thread brought back from the dead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 well, if it's revived, I'll pitch in that my 'other' response is a turd...ahem: sea hare...all the way. nothing goes after the microalgae like them, IME. whether it's the little film on the glass, GHA, diatoms...seems like anything from the plant kingdom that doesn't have real structure. I had some Caulerpa prolifera in my 55 that had some fluffy stuff growing on it (I had some seriously full-of-nutrient rock to start with), my turd cleaned the fluffy stuff off the plant, leaving the plant intact...very impressed. though i also like nass snails for their sandbed work and trochus since they can flip themselves over. oh and the chesnut snail (nasserius sp.)from garrett's (TPA) is a fav too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted June 22, 2012 Author Share Posted June 22, 2012 Oh yes Sea Hares do great work. I just can't ever seem to keep one. They disappear. I suspect the wrasses keep eating them. They are also very cool creatues. I had one that actually ate all the cyano I had in my tank. They are such efficient eaters they can starve. I also had one get shredded when it tried to clean the vortech :( so I just gave up on getting one now as I was sad to keep losing them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burningbaal Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 the one I had in the 55 died after several months...I think he starved. now I've got one in the 90g and am running 30g of fuge (w/ lights) in the sump, so I figure I can just swap him between the fuge and the display every so often to keep him from starving...I hope. there's some other in corvallis that would probably take him from me quickly if it looks like he's ran out of food in both. super efficient. i wish there was a smaller variety we could use so they were less likely to starve themselves! rumor is they will eat algae sheets, but I'm not sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cirenus Posted June 22, 2012 Share Posted June 22, 2012 I really like my Emerald crab, he sifts my sand a lot scavenging, and will even scrape off the brown algae i have right now that's on my glass. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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