Hi guys, since I haven't covered a clean up crew for the tank thread. Heres a list that I made up which i hope will help u out in choosing the right crew to keep ur tank speck n span. Hope you find this useful, especially those starting a new tank.
These are pretty much readily found or brought in by our LFS. I try not to add those oddballs in the group. If u find anything missing from the list, let me know. Happy shopping for ur little critters!
Snails
Turbo snails - feeds on algae, including hair algae, cyanobacteria and diatoms. It will devour algae types shunned by many other algae-eaters. Will remove algae from various surfaces, including live rock, corals and aquarium glass. Large and knocks over stuff, cant handle small crevices.
Cerith Snails - consume diatoms, cyano, film algae (some) , detritus, hair algae (some) and uneaten food in the substrate as well as on rocks and to some extent the glass in your aquarium. Small and can fit through crevices. Hardy snails
Fighting Couch/ strombus (Gong Gong) - Excellent sand sifting abilities to clean and aerate the substrate, Consumes brown algae, diatoms, detritus, unable to climb up tank walls.
Asterea snails - Good snails for getting rid of brown and green algae from the walls of your tank, from your live rock, and from your substrate (they will not eat longer hair algae). , however, when they are flipped over as they cannot get back to their correct orientation and will die (notice the base of the shell to differentiate between asterea and trochus)
Trochus snails - Trochus eat a variety of algae from filamentous to film, and has been reported to have a special adoration for diatoms. They can be found cleaning any surface of your tank, but will be frequently seen on the glass. (notice the base of the shell to differentiate between asterea and trochus)
Nerite snails - Is very good at eating algae off the tank walls. Nerite Snail eats phytoplankton, especially algae, Cyanobacteria, Diatoms, Film Algae and vegetable bits. These snails are excellent for cleaning the rocks and glass of your aquarium
Nassarius snails - Excellent for sandbeds, scavengers on meaty food, dropped food, dead/dying
Magarita snails - Though they are excellent algae eaters, the Margarita Snail lives a short life in most reef aquaria, due to temperature requirements. Will stay mostly on rock and hard surfaces eating diatom and micro-algae. Not recommended due to its short mortality rate in a captive tank
Bubblebee snail - They are predatory on other snails and worms. They will clean your sand of beneficial critters. If you see them moving up the glass they are not grazing on the nasty algae…. they are looking for snails and worms. Not recommended to keep with other cuc
Crabs
Red-legged Hermit Crab - – These crabs do an excellent job of scavenging and keeping algae under control (they will even eat hair algae which most snails avoid). They will also eat fish food.
Blue-legged Hermit Crab - Will relentlessly eat just about anything in your aquarium (algae, scraps of food, etc.) Have been known to be aggressive towards snails
Sally Lightfoot Crab - Will scavenge around the tank looking for bits of food or detritus and pick at algae constantly. They are generally considered reef safe although the larger ones have been reported to eat injured or dead fish if they cannot find other food sources. They also will crawl around on the corals a great deal, but this does not generally lead to problems
Emerald Green Crab - Well known for its ability to eat bubble algae, detritus, uneaten food
Shrimps
Cleaner Shrimps - These shrimps do an excellent job of scavenging for leftover food, but they also pick parasites off of fish and are used to control saltwater ich.
Coral Banded Shrimp - Excellent job of scavenging for leftover food
Peppermint Shrimp - These shrimp are excellent scavengers and are one of the best methods for controlling Aiptasia.
Starfish
Sand Sifting Starfish - For sand bed, uneaten food and detritus. This is a nocturnal animal and basically feeds on detritus and any uneaten food that makes its way to sand bed. Recommanded for tanks with sandbeds only.
Brittle Sea star - Brittle stars feed on plankton but also on detritus, coral-shed mucus, bottom detritus, mollusks and worms They are great scavengers and mainly feed on decaying matter and plankton.
Others
Sea Hare - Natures voracious eaters of green algae – in particular hair algae. Considered an ultimate hair algae eating machine and cleans every bit of algae mess in your home aquarium.
Abalone - Considered personally as one of the best clean up crew member. Feeds on most algae both on rocks, glass and substrate.
Sea cucumber - It feeds on algae, bacteria, and meaty items that are present in the sand and anything on which it can scavenge.
Lettuce Nudibranch - Certain lettuce slug species are known to feed on Bryopsis. It helps tackling the unnecessary growth of algae. The Lettuce Nudibranch is photosynthetic in nature, and gets benefits from the chloroplast in their tissue from the algae they eat. It sucks in the chlorophyll contents of algae, and then incorporates that chlorophyll into their own tissues. Eliminates the growth of algae by foraging on live rocks and aquarium glass
Sea urchin - These guys are powerful when comes to the job, known to eat most algae, some may eat hair algae. Also if u have caroline algae, they will feed on it too. Excellent algae eater and controls the excessive growth of the same in the aquarium