Who Gives A Fish Forums

I recently purchased my first live stock, a Clownfish, and now I'm considering the clean up crew for my tank. I've been thinking of adding a few creatures to help with the maintenance - 3 Astrea Snails seem like a good starting point, followed by 2 Nassarius snails for their ability to consume detritus. I'm also looking at introducing 2 Blue Legged Crabs for their scavenging abilities and 1 Cleaner Shrimp to help with parasite control. Another thing I've noticed is my current Clownfish seems to be quite fond of the toy clownfish in my tank, often hanging around it, so I'm thinking of getting another one to keep it company.

Honestly, I would've suggested adding the cleanup crew first, but no big deal, it's crucial you add them now. Adding these to your system is a solid move. Just a heads up, remember the general rule of thumb is a minimum of one cleanup crew member per gallon of tank, so keep that in mind as you're setting up.

Yeah, I know I messed up, totally spaced out on the cleanup crew when I was at the LFS. I'll grab them on Tuesday, thanks for the reminder.

Clownfish do better in pairs, I think it's pretty well known. Cleaner shrimps too, they seem to do a lot better in twos. I've found they tend to hide away when kept on their own, at least in my experience anyway.

I'm worried they might get too aggressive, I've heard that about clowns before.

is your clown quite big, if its small, try and get a larger one, this will likely become the female of the pair and they should settle down, ideally they should be bought as a pair and the one that grows the fastest will become the female.

Yeah, shrimps really do love being in pairs. I've been fortunate with my cleaner shrimp, it's super active, but that's not usually the case with just one. When you're acclimating your shrimp - whichever one you choose - just make sure to take your time, 'cause they can shock easily, and it can happen within minutes. I'd recommend getting a small one, so you can watch it grow. From my experience, the larger ones don't change as much personality-wise as they do when they're little. If you get a bigger one that's been caught wild, it might be more prone to hiding.

Yeah I was thinking of getting a bigger one to pair with mine. It's only about half an inch long right now.

I've always been a bit puzzled by this - how are you supposed to add a cleanup crew first when there's nothing for them to clean? No algae, no leftover food, nothing. Won't they just starve or something? It seems counterintuitive to put them in an empty tank with no mess to clean up.

I've had a similar experience myself - I got algae blooms and hair algae during the cycling process. It was actually a blessing in disguise, saved me from having to scrub the tank every other day.