# My cleanup crew are Pricks!



## homerjay (Dec 30, 2014)

My cleaner shrimp steals food from candy cane coral while it's closed eating! And my emerald crab has ripped my toadstool leather off any rock I stick it to for the last week! Anyone got suggestions?


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## tom g (Jul 8, 2009)

*death*

death by bunga bunga ...........


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## homerjay (Dec 30, 2014)

What's bunga bunga? Lol


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## Bullet (Apr 19, 2014)

I feed my cleaner shrimps a piece of krill before I feed my candy canes and that usually distracts them until the candy cane tentacles close up 

As for crabs, you are on your own - I will never allow a crab in any of my tanks - they are opportunistic feeders / killers


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## homerjay (Dec 30, 2014)

The shrimp sticks his claws in the candy cane while its closed. He wedges them in the tiny hole. Fresh or Salt, I always seem to get the worst behaved ones.


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## Bullet (Apr 19, 2014)

homerjay said:


> The shrimp sticks his claws in the candy cane while its closed. He wedges them in the tiny hole. Fresh or Salt, I always seem to get the worst behaved ones.


Do you only have 1 cleaner shrimp ?
I find that they are better in pairs - maybe it will be less interested in your candy canes if it has a buddy 
They are great shrimps - tons of personality


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## fesso clown (Nov 15, 2011)

No shrimp or crabs in my tank. I had a pair of coral banded bastards when they died (one during a move and one ???) I never replaced them. Now I have a Flame Hawk so I can't even if I wanted to. I get to spot feed NY coral now which I like...


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## kwsjimmy (Jan 5, 2015)

*cuc reef safe..*

No crabs.. I had a emerald crab, was reef safe until he grew.. Once he was bigger he was very brave, started taking nips at my carpet anemone, no more crabs


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## TBemba (Jan 11, 2010)

What should and shouldn't be kept as a clean up crew in a reef tank?

- no crabs
- no shrimp

- Snail?
- hermit crabs?
- Starfish


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## kwsjimmy (Jan 5, 2015)

No hermits...


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## goobafish (Jan 27, 2015)

TBemba said:


> What should and shouldn't be kept as a clean up crew in a reef tank?
> 
> - no crabs
> - no shrimp
> ...


This is not the case, it is definitely a matter of preference and weighing the pros and cons of each. All the popular options are considered "reef safe" yet you will always see complaints of emerald crabs grabbing polyps, hermits annoying corals, killing snails ect. You take what you can personally deal with and what makes you happy. I can live with an emerald crab cutting of a polyp, especially because this has only happened when the coral was almost dead/dying.

I followed the no crabs, no shrimp advice thinking that the annoyance of having my scape moved or my frags moved would be the hardest thing personally to deal with.While my frag plugs stayed in place, there were many areas of the tank that the snails could not reach and detritus/algae accumulated, and then, I was introduced to every form of invasive macro algae possible, doing a ton a research and manual removal to avoid spreading spores. Now I have tweaked my crew to take care of all these issues (including Bryopsis) without having me to perform tedious manual removal, even if this means that I need to fix 1-2 frags a day due to the crabs.

Without crabs you have no recourse for things like bubble algae, hair algae, invasive macro-algae on new frags ect. This leaves you to manually remove each of them, following different precautions for each to avoid spreading their spores. Also if you are a new reefer, or unfamiliar with all these types of algae you risk both leaving an invasive type un-touched and allowing it to spread, like with bubble algae popping it and allowing its spores to spread through the tank.

Your crew should be built based on how your aquascape is setup (small crevices mean that snails will never get in there), how your algae is developing, and based on what you can think you personally can handle. Can't handle your frags getting knocked over or moved? Well then skip the emerald crabs, get hermits for the crevices, and learn proper methods for manual removal of hair, bubble algae and all sorts of macro algaes (if you get them). Its really your choice in the end.


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