Clean up crew solutions...

My 5 gallons has been having a crazy bloom in hair algae lately. I started changing about 30% of the water every 4 days and it seems to be helping... but I need to help it along. All my snails and hermits have died. Im pretty sure that my pom-pom crab is the culprit.

My question is... what should i do? Catch the pom pom and get rid him in exchange for some fresh snails? Would you do all snails, or a mix of snails and hermits? For some reason, I think the hermits would eat the snails in my tank also lol.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

A couple of Astraea should do the trick as long your not dumping phosphates into the tank and your properly maintaining water parameters.

I have never heard of a Pom going aggressive, suppose it's possible especially in a small tank with limited food source. You can probably give it to the LFS especially if it still has it's Anemones.

You really do not need any hermits.

Should take very little time to whip a 5 gallon into shape.

 

It's possible that the hermits killed the snails and then starved, or perhaps they all just starved. A tank that size won't provide much food for either one.

Personally, I'd recommend just a couple of blue-leg hermits. They stay fairly tiny, will thrive on leftover food, and can be fed a small chunk of raw fish or shrimp occasionally, as I do mine. Otherwise, getting your maintenance back in order will take care of the algae, then you'll just have more dead snails fueling yet another algae bloom.

BTW, you might also consider target-feeding the pom-pom 2 or 3 times per month. Most anything will become opportunistic if it gets hungry enough.