Much of the clean up crew we sell comes from the same water as the shop. Our team collects it in the Florida Keys under Florida certificate #AQ0254072 and conditions it in our Key West systems before it ships. This guide lists every Keys species we carry, what job each one does, and the honest catch with each.
Not sure how many to buy? The clean up crew calculator builds a starting crew from your tank size, age, substrate and the problem you can see, using animals in stock today.
Match the animal to the job
| The problem | Who handles it |
|---|---|
| Film algae and diatoms on glass and rock | Astrea snails, banded trochus, stocky ceriths |
| Dirty, packed sand bed | Fighting conch, stocky ceriths, nassarius, sand sifting star |
| Leftover food and detritus in the rock | Hermit crabs, brittle and serpent stars |
| Bubble algae | Emerald crab, plus removing the big bubbles by hand |
| Hair algae and turf | Pincushion urchin, pencil urchin, reef urchin, sea hare, lettuce sea slug |
| Aiptasia | Peppermint shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni) |
| Bristleworms | Arrow crab |
No crew fixes the cause of an algae problem. If nitrate and phosphate are high, the algae will outgrow anything you add. Start the crew light, and fix the nutrients alongside it.
Snails and slugs
- Florida fighting conch (Strombus alatus). Plows the top inch of sand for film algae and detritus. Needs at least 2 inches of sand and open floor. Care guide · Shop
- Stocky cerith snail (Cerithium litteratum). Works the sand line, the bottom of the glass and the rock touching the sand, mostly at night. Care guide · Shop
- Astrea snail. Grazes film algae and diatoms on glass and rock. It often cannot right itself if it falls, so set it back on its foot. Shop
- Banded trochus snail. Does the same glass and rock work as an astrea, and can flip itself over when it falls. Shop
- Nassarius snail (Nassarius vibex). Lives buried in the sand and comes up for leftover food. Needs a real sand bed. Care guide · Shop
- Lettuce sea slug. Eats hair algae and bryopsis, and nothing else. It starves once the algae is gone. Shop
- Sea hare (Aplysia). Strips hair algae fast, then has nothing to eat. A treatment, not a permanent resident. Cover pump intakes first. Shop
Hermit crabs and crabs
- Scarlet reef hermit crab (Paguristes cadenati). Grazes film algae and leftovers, and is less likely than most hermits to go after snails. Care guide · Shop
- Blue leg hermit crab. Cleans up leftover food and gets into crevices. Can kill snails for food or shells, so keep spare shells. Shop
- Red leg hermit crab. Bigger than the blue legs and more willing to fight over a shell. Keep spares in the tank. Shop
- Emerald crab (Mithraculus sculptus). The one animal we put on bubble algae. An opportunist, so keep it fed. Care guide · Shop
- Porcelain crab (Petrolisthes). A filter feeder that fans food out of the water. Peaceful, and not an algae or detritus eater. Shop
- Arrow crab. Eats bristleworms. It will also go after small shrimp. Shop
Shrimp
- Peppermint shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni). Eats aiptasia. Works better in a small group, added at lights out. Shop
- Pederson shrimp. A small cleaner shrimp that sets up station in an anemone and picks over fish. Shop
Sea stars and brittle stars
- Common brittle star (Ophiocoma wendtii). Pulls detritus and leftover food out of the rockwork at night. Care guide · Shop
- Serpent star. Lives down in the rock and takes food that falls where nothing else reaches. Shop
- Sand sifting sea star (Astropecten). Keeps a deep sand bed turned over. Not for tanks under 50 gallons or younger than six months. Shop
Urchins
- Pincushion urchin (Lytechinus variegatus). Heavy hair algae and film grazer that carries shells and loose frags on its back. Care guide · Shop
- Slate pencil urchin (Eucidaris tribuloides). Night grazer with thick, blunt spines. Grazes coralline, and may sample sponges or coral if hungry. Care guide · Shop
- Reef urchin (Echinometra viridis). A compact urchin that works film and turf algae at night. Care guide · Shop
Count every urchin together. Our calculator allows one urchin in an established tank up to about 150 gallons, and two above that.
Where your clean up crew comes from
These animals live on the flats, seagrass beds, rubble and reef around the Keys. Our team collects them by hand under our Florida certificate, then condition them in our Key West systems before they ship. Because they are wild animals, shell color, size and wear vary from one to the next.
Every invertebrate here is sensitive to salinity swings and to copper. Float the bag to match temperature, drip tank water in slowly to match salinity, never add the shipping water to your tank, and never add them to a tank that has had copper in it.
More guides for a Caribbean tank: what eats hair algae, reef-safe crabs, arrow crab care, lettuce sea slug care, and how to build a Caribbean biotope reef tank.
Also from the Keys: juvenile queen angelfish and rock beauties, and the rock flower anemone.
Build your crew
Use the clean up crew calculator for a starting count, or browse the whole clean up crew category. New species guides are added to this page as we write them.
The Underwater Gardener is a reef store in Key West, Florida. Our Florida Keys clean up crew is collected by our team under Florida certificate #AQ0254072 and conditioned in our Key West systems before it ships. Livestock ships UPS Next Day Air on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.