Should I get some backup food?

[miston]

I'm about to order the following clean-up crew for my 12 gallon NanoCube DX:

1 Fighting Conch - Aquacultured
10 Scarlet Hermit Crab
1 Cleaner Shrimp
10 Nassarius Snails
10 Astrea Snails

My backwall is covered in algae and slime, but everything else is pretty clean. If it looks like I don't have enough food I will probably give away a few of the critters to my friend who just bought his live rock.

Question is:

1) Is this too many?
2) Should I purchase some some back-up food in case everything gets too clean? I don't want anybody to starve

 

[shavo]

hey I was just curious do you have fish in this tank? why did yuo need a cleaner shrimp?
also I think it may be too many hermits in there, but I am not a hermit crab expert.
and maybe a little too many snails too now that I think about it.

 

[miston]

well, I might as well get a group of 10, since its cheaper, and if I need to get rid of any I have a friend who will need them

I plan to add a pair of clownfish and a watchman goby

 

[shavo]

sounds good, You know what your doing then, the hermits may attack the snails for the shells just to let you know.

 

[miston]

I ordered 50 empty hermit crab shells for $4.99!

 

[shavo]

I guess you have a better chance of it not happening but who's to say what shell a crab wants. it might not really matter, but i think you have things covered, good luck with everything and post back with your results ok?

 

[Len]

I also think it may be a bit too many snails. If the tank has no algae problems, you may want to remove one or two at a time until you've reached a good equilibrium. You can let them compete and sort themselves out "naturally" too

 

[miston]

what about increasing the light cycle?

I had it on about 12 hours, experienced a green algae bloom, reduced the light cycle to about 10 hours, which helped

though I also think the algae bloom had a lot to do with the cycle

I must also add that I just finished scrubbing the rock and cleaned the glass (leaving plenty of algae build-up on the back wall for the snails)

My one little hermit hitchhiker crab stays busy though!

 

[Anonymous]

I also think it may be a bit too many snails. If the tank has no algae problems, you may want to remove one or two at a time until you've reached a good equilibrium. You can let them compete and sort themselves out "naturally" too

FWIW, that fighting conch will starve in short order, IMO. That size tank isn't nearly big enough to support one. I'd leave that off the order.

 

[miston]

darn, already ordered

My friend has a 22 gallon, would that be big enough?

This is the first I've heard of it being too small for a fighting conch. I got the idea for a conch from saltwaterfish.com's Nano Reef Package, which includes the following:

Scarlet Hermit Crab: 5
Blueleg Hermit Crab: 5
Turbo/Astrea Snail: 10
Nasssarius Snail: 5
Queen Conch - Aquacultured: 2
Cleaner Clam: 2

A few peeps replied that they wouldn't get the Queen Conch, and that I should instead get a Fighint Conch, as they won't get that big. I kind of put my own package together.

How will I know if he's starving? Is a 22 gallon big enough for him (that's what my friend has)?

 

[ChrisRD]

Queen Conchs can get over a foot long and they grow quickly. Putting one in a nano is ridiculous, let alone two.

Fighting Conchs stay much smaller, but IMO conchs should only be placed in large aquariums (ie. 100+ gallon).

 

[miston]

The other place was out of Cerith snails, so I canceled my order, scratched the Fighting Conch idea and went with the following:

5 scarlet hermits
5 Nassarius snails
5 Astrea snails
5 Cerith snails
some medium sized empty hermit shells

 

[Anonymous]

works for me...much better choices IMO.