Cleaners die off after the tank is mostly clean?

Once my tank is clean, will all his cleaners die from a lack of food? This has happened to me time and time again, wheras i thought that maybe it would balance out, so that perhaps some of them would live, enough to keep the tank clean, but the extras would die off. This is especially evident with hermit crabs, that dont seem to live long at all, and i have a huge pile of dead turbo snails as well. I myself really like watching these inverts, and would like to keep them as more than just a cleanup crew, but if this is not possible than id rather just clean the tank myself then waste the money.

 

The up keeping of a Cleaning Crew(CC) is always never ending, but is much needed. I "over dose" on them only when I need them, but I always have some in the tank. Luna

 

Starvation is not uncommon. Many websites sell packages based on number of gallons your tank is. The quantities of cleaner inverts they try to sell you is absolutely insane. (Not only that, some of the animals they try to sell you is insane). Obviously, there are still honest web sites out there so I don't want to paint with too wide of a brush.

Use a smaller amount of inverts and increase only if necessary and they will live a long time. (For the hermits, keep the empty shells of past residents.....they cannot grow their own shells unlike snails).

 

I have found that snails and crabs once they make it through a 2 or 3 week period will live a long time. But many of them do not make it that long.

I always try to insure that I have a few in each tank and replace them as they die. I seem to have the best luck keeping mexican turbo snails and bumblebee snails anything else that I have ever bought rarely live long. Those mexican snails are very good cleaners some of the best that I have seen.

I always acclimate them to the water temp through a slow process. Some snails that you can buy are from colder water climates and these usually do not live long.

 

I just like watching the inverts more then the fish actually, and it always disappoints me when i spent a decent amount of money on them and A) they dont do a very good job and B) they die soon anyway

Hermits are especially bad, i had no luck AT ALL with scarlets.

 

If you dont mind loosing come coraline algae and you only have soft corals a urchin is a pretty good cleaner and they are fun to watch.

Me and my friends only buy mexican turbo snails now. I dont even replace the crabs as they die anymore. I do have better luck with the blue leg crabs than the red but I dont think I will ever buy more.

 

Don't try to beat the algae. Try to make amends with it. Find equilibrium. Snails and crabs have not evolved to exterminate algae, they have only evolved to feed off it. Accept the fact that some small amount of algae in your tank is actually beneficial to both inverts and water quality itself. You are only destroying mother nature's natural order of things by trying to remove every bit of it- and as you can see, it has its consequences.

 

I second this comment. We got a free Common Urchin on a piece of LR, and the tank I'm building is glass specifically to accommodate him/her/it?

Absolutely fascinating creature. Nighttime is interesting to go downstairs and check out his walking habits. During feeding time, I've noticed he'll get bits of food stuck in his spines that the clowns and peppermints don't eat, and they invariably end up making their way to his mouth. Mostly though, he sticks to several brown algae patches I intentionally leave alone, and keeps them thinner than they otherwise would be.

Haven't noticed him chowing down on the Coraline, (which absolutely covers all of our LR at this point) but then, ours rarely leaves the tank glass.

 

2 things come to mind.

Firstly you should get a ground probe - stray current and inverts really don't mix well.

Secondly, how many crabs and snails are you adding at a time. When I first started my LFS told me I needed 1 snail and 1 crab for each gallon of water (ie 30 of each for my 30g tank). I thought that this sounded rediculous so I got 6 crabs and 4 snails. Seems to have been a lucky guess as none of them have died and algae stays at a minimum.

 

I also only got only, a few because I didn't want them to die. All of my blue legged hermits are alive and well--I put extra shells for them in the tank from day one. I have found that most places don't have extra shells and don't tell people that they need them. Mine came from shelling until I got some from John. The only crabs that seemed to make it were the ones that were born in my tank. All the snails are healthy--I could probably use more but I don't want them to die, so I also have some visible algae.