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Old 11-22-2008, 05:05 AM
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naesco naesco is offline
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There used to be a guideline before sand beds were commonly used to have one snail per gallon and everyone went out and did that with the result that there were tonnes of dead snails.
They simply starved to death, or died of too low salinity or poor acclimatization.
A few is fine. (Bumblebees are predators, margaritas require cool water)

Hermit crabs do significant damage. They eat all the little critters (worms etc.) that spawn micro 'eggs' that most coral feed on which defeats one of the beneficial reasons for having sand and rock in the aquarium.
No more than one per 10 gallons is recommended.

I was suprised to read the above in Marine Invertebrates by Dr. Ron Shimak but it makes sense and he is the expert on invertebrates.

IMO, J&L should not be selling cleaner packages because they don't benefit the reef system but harms it.
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