how many crabs and snails are ideal?

[Anonymous]

for my 40g tank. right now i only have 3 turbo snails and 5 hermits. i had a couple astrea snails but they died. i'm also not accounting for the itty bitty snails that seem to come out at night and the one mysterious one that we can't seem to figure out.

i only ask because i have noticed from past threads that the "average" seems to be at least a combination of 20 or more.

could someone please give me a detailed recommendation of critters? also, what about a cuke or brittle?

thanks!

 

[esmithiii]

one per gallon. I know this sounds excessive, but trust me on it.

Ernie

 

[Anonymous]

I think it depends on the size of the snail. I had 4 large turbo snails in a 38 gallon, and they ate all the algae, and I had to start feeding them algae strips so they would have enough food. After a while, they would come up to the top of the tank to be fed every day. (It takes a minute or two for them to grab hold of it)

When I finally get the stand for my 125 gallon, I won't be putting more than a dozen for the first six months until I see how things go.

 

[SPC]

Well Ms Coralshrimp, once again you have come up with a question that is hard to give a black and white answer to IMO.

This is my thought on the subject.
1. Hermits - I am a firm believer that hermit crabs eat the critters in the sand bed, something I dont want. I reached this conclusion by personal observation and reading Dr Rons opinion on the subject. If I did not have a deep sand bed I would probably have some of these guys.
2. Snails - I love my algae eating snails

. In my 180 I have about 80 astrea, 2 queen conk, and maybe 10 cerith. In my 75 sump I have all kinds of different (small) snails and have taken out about 10 welks. The welks BTW came in on the LR and are snail eaters

.
Now, how many snails you have should be proportional to the amount of algae in your tank and that is why its hard for me to give an exact #. I feel that many of the snails in our tanks die of starvation and therefore its all kind of a feel thing. Dr Ron has stated that each queen conk requires about 2 sq ft of open sand in order to survive, so this is sort of a good # to go by when considering the addition of one of these.
I also have one cucumber (donkey turd is what he was called

) and he does a great job of keeping the sand clean. He is about 8" long and I consider the 180 to be just about right for 1 of these plus the two conks. Let me add that queen conks get huge and grow quickly and therefore I am sure I will have to supplement their feeding in the future.
Steve

 

[Anonymous]

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by SPC:

<strong>Now, how many snails you have should be proportional to the amount of algae in your tank and that is why its hard for me to give an exact #. I feel that many of the snails in our tanks die of starvation and therefore its all kind of a feel thing. </strong><hr></blockquote>

this makes a lot of sense. i don't really have a great amount of algae, *just enough* for the 3 turbos i suppose. i had a lot before i got the snails but they mowed it down pretty quick.

i had no idea the hermits ate sand critters. i was under the impression they just surfed around eating detritus. oh, well. since i only have 5 of them, maybe i'll be okay.