Which invertebrate?

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contrid

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Hi guys!

My wife and I are considering getting another invertebrate for our marine tank.
We currently have a cleaner shrimp and that's it.

Some of the fish in the tank include a yellow tang, atlantic blue tang, bristle tooth tang, psychedelic mandarin, yellow wrasse, purple fire fish goby, citron goby, orange clowns, black clown.

Is a blue leg hermit crab a good choice? Is it placid and will it help keep the tank clean? Or would we be better off with another cleaner shrimp or a peppermint shrimp?

There is no purpose for getting another invertebrate, just that we want to add something to the tank and we have the space. We're not ready for another fish just yet. The only bonus purpose would be something that can help keep nitrates down by cleaning the aragonite.

I'm quite new to this so I don't really know what the options are so please advise and tell me what you would get if you were us.

Thank you, we appreciate it very much!
 
Ok, you could put a fair amount in there, a general rule of thumb is one snail/crab for every 10 litres, so you could put in about 20 to be safe, not all at once though. ;)
contrid said:
The only bonus purpose would be something that can help keep nitrates down by cleaning the aragonite.
Click to expand...
For that you can get 5 or 6 Nassarius snails, they burrow under the sand and leave their "trunks" (I forgot the proper name :p) above the sand and when you feed the fish they all bubble up out of the sand to come and feed, very cool to watch. Also consider a few hermit crabs, and a few other snails as well. A good mixture would be Mexican Turbo snails, Astrea snails, Trochus snails and Nassarius snails. Some snails will clean the glass as well which is an added bonus. :p.

Bear in mind, most invertebrates, including snails and shrimps are sensitive to high nitrate levels, so if your Nitrates are high then I suggest you get them down before adding any clean up crew. Snails also need to be very slowly drip acclimatised due to their sensitivity.

Oh yes, and get another cleaner shrimp, they like company and will spend most of their time together. :)
 
viper357 said:
Ok, you could put a fair amount in there, a general rule of thumb is one snail/crab for every 10 litres, so you could put in about 20 to be safe, not all at once though. ;)For that you can get 5 or 6 Nassarius snails, they burrow under the sand and leave their "trunks" (I forgot the proper name :p) above the sand and when you feed the fish they all bubble up out of the sand to come and feed, very cool to watch. Also consider a few hermit crabs, and a few other snails as well. A good mixture would be Mexican Turbo snails, Astrea snails, Trochus snails and Nassarius snails. Some snails will clean the glass as well which is an added bonus. :p.

Bear in mind, most invertebrates, including snails and shrimps are sensitive to high nitrate levels, so if your Nitrates are high then I suggest you get them down before adding any clean up crew. Snails also need to be very slowly drip acclimatised due to their sensitivity.

Oh yes, and get another cleaner shrimp, they like company and will spend most of their time together. :)
Click to expand...

Thank you, that is very useful, I appreciate it!
 
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