Hermit crabs and snails are normally the primary janitors that aquarists place of their aquariums as a result of they’re a number of the finest animals to have for controlling frequent algae issues.
About Hermit Crabs
Phylum Arthropoda
Subphylum Crustacea
Class Malacostraca
Do you know that hermit crabs are scavengers? Yep, most species will eat absolutely anything they’ll discover. Because of this, they make ideally suited cleaners for a reef tank, so long as you select a Reef Secure Hermit Crab.
Correctly chosen hermit crabs should not have any detrimental impression on a reef system. In reality, they’re solely helpful. Small species that don’t develop greater than a few inches in dimension are most fascinating, as they normally don’t disturb different tank life, and they’re able to get into tiny cracks and crevices the place algae develop that bigger hermits can not entry. They’ll additionally entry areas below rocks and corals the place detritus or particles accrued to take away it.
Massive species such because the Anemone Carrying Hermit (Dardanus pedunculatus), Yellow Bushy Hermit (Aniculus maximus) and Halloween Hermit (Trizopagurus strigatus) are undesirable as reef janitors, as they might trigger undesirable harm to your reef system. A majority of these hermits can disrupt tank life by climbing on every thing, and due to the massive clumsy, cumbersome shells they dwell in, trigger the toppling of rockscape preparations and the shifting of corals. Apart from, they might assault or eat different tank inhabitants. Should you need to maintain massive hermit crabs, accomplish that solely in a tank of appropriate atmosphere and dimension, and bear in mind they are going to outgrow their shells. You might want to present them with new housing (bigger shells) as they molt and develop, in any other case, they might assault different shelled animals to get a brand new shell. One generally imported species that has this trait is the Clibanarius vittatus, most frequently bought because the Striped Hermit Crab. Do you want shells to your hermit(s)? Listed below are a couple of suppliers you possibly can take a look at.
In style Algae Consuming Hermit Crabs
- Small hermit crabs of the Genus Calcinus present in Hawaii are extraordinarily environment friendly little critters. Some stay very small, solely 1-1.5 cm in dimension, whereas different species on this group attain a size of fewer than two inches. Due to their tiny dimension, these hermit crabs can actually get into these small areas in a reef tank that different hermits can not. The Left-Handed or Dwarf Zebra Hermit Crab is likely one of the finest examples of a fantastic reef secure algae eater.
- The Blue Legged Hermit (Clibanarius tricolor), in addition to different related species are fairly fashionable, however some such because the Anomura sp. will kill Astraea snails to acquire their shells.
- The Purple Legged Hermit (Clibanarius digueti) is claimed by some to be a a lot better algae eater than the Blue Legged Hermit, much less aggressive, and has been reported to eat pink slime algae.
- Apart from consuming algae, the golf ball sized Blue Eyed Hermit Crab (Paguristes erythrops) spends its time stirring up the highest layer of the substrate of the aquarium.
- The Scarlet Hermit Crab (Paguristes cadenanti) is likely one of the hottest hermits with reef keepers, due to its colourful look, and since it would eat all types of algae, similar to pink, inexperienced and brown slimes, in addition to inexperienced hair algae.
About Snails
To start with, learn to establish and steer clear of all varieties of predatory shelled snails. These are stinging, venomous animals that both bore holes into their prey and rasp out their flesh, or kill their prey with venom, normally injected via a harpoon, and eat the prey entire. The biggest and most evident of the venomous species are all within the genus Conus, whose venom will not be solely deadly to different marine life however will be exceptionally deadly to people! Snails within the predatory class usually are not usually bought in fish shops, however typically they’ll trip in as hitchhikers with dwell rock collected within the wild.
Three of the most typical marine snail species used for controlling algae in saltwater aquariums and reef tanks are the Astraea/Astrea, Turban/Turbo, and Trochus/Trocus, with many sorts discovered worldwide. Let’s take a better take a look at every of those teams.
- Based on Julian Sprung’s Reef Aquarium Guide, Quantity One, Astraea sp. are the perfect snail to be positioned in your aquarium as quickly as ammonia and nitrite ranges attain acceptable ranges (lower than 1 ppm). Launched as quickly as potential to a brand new aquarium, that has reached this biking section, these snails successfully restrict the event of all microalgae. In different phrases, they’re good at consuming diatoms however will devour Purple Slime and Inexperienced Hair algae as nicely. The Astraea tecta present in Florida and Caribbean waters inhabits rocky intertidal areas and is claimed to be fairly adept at eradicating algae from rock surfaces.
- There are quite a few species of Turbans, known as Turbo Snails, and Trochus snails worldwide that feed solely on algae, making them excellent candidates for algae management. A majority of these snails are much less adept at coping with irregular surfaces, in order that they normally divide their time between cleansing the glass and digging within the sand for detritus.
- One other good glass polisher is the tiny Black Nerite (Pipipi) snail (Nerita picea) present in Hawaii. It solely reaches a dimension of about 1.5 cm and spends its time residing alongside the shallow rocky and coral rubble lined inter tidal areas of the shoreline, in cohabitation with small hermit crabs of Genus Caleinus. The N. picea likes to reside on the aquarium glass in quest of algae to eat throughout night time time hours however will spend a while roaming round to aquarium. Shut relations are N. neglectus, that grows to the dimensions of a thumbnail, and N. polita lives within the sand throughout sunlight hours and grows to about 1-1/2 inches. These two species prefer to crawl out of the aquarium, due to this fact, they don’t seem to be good selections.