Okay, I'm getting ready to add a cleanup crew...its a 12 gallon nano cube dx, and its gonna be a reef. What do you guys think of: 3 nerite snails, 3 blue leg hermit crabs, and either a sexy shrimp or a coral banded shrimp. Which is better, a sexy shrimp or a coral banded? Anyone have any other suggestions?

IMO I would go with the sexy shrimp just because he would have less impact on the ammonia levels in your tank and as far as your clean up crew goes it sounds about right but a brittle star is a great member of any cuc and you will probably never even notice the brittle star is there unless you observe your tank at night or move the tank.

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yeah, I was leaning towards the sexy shrimp. I'll just have to figure out where to get one. What do you feed brittle stars?

get a couple of turbo snails in your CUC also and stay away from the green brittle stars if you decide to get 1, personaly I would avoid starfish and go with the crabs and snails I prefer the red leg hermit crabs to blue legged and remember red leg and blue leg crabs can't be mixed.

Yeah, I called my LFS and they said that the red legged ones are cheaper than the blue ones so I'm just gonna get those. I don't think I will get a starfish. I'll see if the LFS has those turbos too. Do you think I need anything else? Should I get like 2 nerites and 1 turbo, or what?
Thanks a lot!!

I would add maybe two cerith snails too. Unless you already have something that stirs your sandbed. They do a great job at keeping the sand both stirred and clean.

Will I need ceriths in addition to the hermits? I thought that the hermits were supposed to do that too.

I personally like to have both because the ceriths will spend most of their time under the substrate eating crap that is deeper down in the sand that the hermits don't usually get to. I have just had good experiences with them and think they do a great job.

Alright. Thanks for that info. I think that I will add my hermit crabs first and then wait a little while for more algae to build up before I put in the snails though, because there isn't like any in there. I figured that with the hermit crabs I could just put in some food every other day or whatever just to make sure they have something to eat. Does that sound alright?

That's exactly how I did it, and with no ill effects

Thanks all you guys for the feedback. I think it will still be a little bit until I can get the CUC but when I do, I'll have to post and tell you guys exactly what I got. So far what I've got is: 3-4 red leg hermits, 2 ceriths, 3 nerites, 1 turbo?, and a sexy shrimp. Sound good?

Okay I know this is really doofy, but I'm really excited because my tank is in the last stage of cycling. I just thought I would tell you guys where I am. I'm probably going to get my CUC for Christmas because I am broke right now.