Cuc needed

andre

Angel Fish
M.A.S.C Club Member
#1
Hi, I'm starting up a 60 gallon cube tank and need a clean up crew. I'm trying to buy as much as possible used, to try to minimize my impact on wild collection. So far I have purchased all the components of my tank used with the exception of the sand. I am wondering where the best place is to get a starter clean up crew, and how many of each animal I should start with. Anyone have recommendations for specific stores? Also, if anyone has any extra snails or crabs that they want to get rid of I would be happy to buy them from you! thanks!
 

zombie

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#2
Most store bought CUC is aquaculture not collected. When starting a new tank, I like using reefcleaners because the price per snail is about a quarter of LFS pricing. Make sure you get half the tank size if you order from them. Their packages have about double what is required if you got their 60 gallon package.
 

jda123

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#3
Wait until you have algae, detritus and the like or these will starve. Clean, new tanks are not good homes to a CUC.

I use Peppermint Shrimp, Astrea, Nerite and Turbo snails, cucumber for the sand and sometimes some larger, more docile hermits (most of the small ones are snail assassins). I get all of these from reeftopia out of the Florida Keys... except for the Turbo Snails which you can find around town.

Nearly all CUC is from the wild. Snails and hermits do not breed in captivity. Cucumbers can, if you ever get one. They are very prolific where they are collected... mostly in the Gulf of Mexico or Indo. They have very few predators and are oft constrained by food resources, so when some are taken, others come along to replace them.
 

SynDen

Administrator
Staff member
M.A.S.C Club Member
M.A.S.C. B.O.D.
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#4
Ambrosio Aquatics always has a good selection of CuC, as does Aquatic Art
 
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