Feeding Inverts

[Lorna]

Okay I just added a cleanup crew to my 75g..... What I am afraid of is that once the algae is gone and I don't have any fish in the tank yet should I be supplementally feeding them? I haven't seen anything about feeding other than they will scavenge for leftovers from feeding the fish. Should I add some dry seaweed such as Nori occasionally and maybe adding some fish food to give them something to chew on? There are about 50 hermits, 50 mixed nassarius/cerith snails, 25 nerite snails and about 12 mexican turbos and 5 peppermint shrimp.

 

[FishGeek]

In your case I would add a clip of seaweed. I never had to worry about that cause I would turn the light on and off just as if there were fish in there and it would create some algea for them. However, I never had that many to feed. I think they also scavange on the rock.

 

[lordroad]

I feed my crew in its pre-fish days a crumbled up pellet of formula 1 twice a week.

 

[Lorna]

Well I keep the light on during the day and there is some algae but not a lot. Funny those peppermint shrimp ate every sign of aiptasia that was there.....They are the ones that I worry about feeding. The nerite and nassarius snails along with the fighting conchs promptly burried themselves in the sand and if they didn't have little probiscus sticking up out of the sand I wouldn't even know they were there. The hermits are having a field day on the rock along with the ceriths.

All is happy. I hope.

 

[dbacksrat]

All is happy. I hope.

If the hermits run out of food, they'll go after the snails

 

[KahluaZzZ]

i found that a bleached caulerpa leaf is appreciated by hermits and pods...some veggie rotting ? Yummy

 

[1979camaro]

the peppermint shrimp love flake food in my experience

 

[FroggyFox]

my nassarius snails LOVE pretty much anything I put in the tank....as soon as the food hits the water they do their "night of the living dead" crawl up out of the sand and start zooming around looking for food Seems like they're always hungry. I try to put a bit of seaweed in for everyone to enjoy once a week or so....but obviously I dont have nearly as many as you do...

 

[wayne]

That's a huge cleanup crew. If i have 10 hermits in 65 gallons I'd be surprised. And yes, I guess you'll need to feed them, though far less than you think as the invert. metabolic rate is very, very low compared to a mammal/bird

 

[Lorna]

Funny but it doesn't seem like a lot once they all disappear into the nooks and crannies of that live rock. I had researched it and went with less than the recommended number according to a few sources.

 

[Fishchaser]

yeah that is a really big clean up cew well thats what i think i have a 60 and i only have 10 snails 2 crabs 2 starfishes and a sea urchin and my tanks cleaning up good

 

[dbacksrat]

you'd better hope all of snails don't run out of algae--or else you're going to have one massive snail dieoff