The clean-up crew is the term that has been used by many aquarists and vendors since the late 1980s to refer to various small animals commonly sold for use in keeping the

reef aquarium A reef aquarium or reef tank is a marine aquarium that prominently displays live corals and other marine invertebrates as well as fish that play a role in maintaining the tropical coral reef environment. A reef aquarium requires appropriately ...

clear of pest algae, detritus and parasites. Among the most popular have long been blue-legged hermit crabs, scarlet hermit crabs, emerald crabs and various

snails A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastrop ...

. Other commonly used animals include

limpets Limpets are a group of aquatic snails that exhibit a conical shell shape (patelliform) and a strong, muscular foot. Limpets are members of the class Gastropoda, but are polyphyletic, meaning the various groups called "limpets" descended indep ...

sea hare The clade Anaspidea, commonly known as sea hares (''Aplysia'' species and related genera), are medium-sized to very large opisthobranch gastropod molluscs with a soft internal shell made of protein. These are marine gastropod molluscs in the s ...

sea urchins Sea urchins () are spiny, globular echinoderms in the class Echinoidea. About 950 species of sea urchin live on the seabed of every ocean and inhabit every depth zone from the intertidal seashore down to . The spherical, hard shells (tests) of ...

brittle stars Brittle stars, serpent stars, or ophiuroids (; ; referring to the serpent-like arms of the brittle star) are echinoderms in the class Ophiuroidea, closely related to starfish. They crawl across the sea floor using their flexible arms for locomot ...

, algae-eating

combtooth blennies Combtooth blennies are blenniiformids; percomorph marine fish of the family Blenniidae, part of the order Blenniiformes. They are the largest family of blennies with around 401 known species in 58 genera. Combtooth blennies are found in tropica ...

, neon gobies,

reef lobster Reef lobsters, ''Enoplometopus'', are a genus of small lobsters that live on reefs in the Indo-Pacific, Caribbean and warmer parts of the Atlantic Ocean. Description Species of ''Enoplometopus'' occur from coral reefs at depths of less than to ...

cleaner shrimp Cleaner shrimp is a common name for a number of swimming decapod crustaceans, that clean other organisms of parasites. They belong to any of three families, Hippolytidae (including the Pacific cleaner shrimp, ''Lysmata amboinensis''), Palaem ...

mysid shrimp Mysida is an order of small, shrimp-like crustaceans in the malacostracan superorder Peracarida. Their common name opossum shrimps stems from the presence of a brood pouch or "marsupium" in females. The fact that the larvae are reared in ...

copepods Copepods (; meaning "oar-feet") are a group of small crustaceans found in nearly every freshwater and saltwater habitat. Some species are planktonic (inhabiting sea waters), some are benthic (living on the ocean floor), a number of species have p ...

ostracods Ostracods, or ostracodes, are a class of the Crustacea (class Ostracoda), sometimes known as seed shrimp. Some 70,000 species (only 13,000 of which are extant) have been identified, grouped into several orders. They are small crustaceans, typical ...

isopod Isopoda is an order of crustaceans that includes woodlice and their relatives. Isopods live in the sea, in fresh water, or on land. All have rigid, segmented exoskeletons, two pairs of antennae, seven pairs of jointed limbs on the thorax, an ...

s and

amphipods Amphipoda is an order of malacostracan crustaceans with no carapace and generally with laterally compressed bodies. Amphipods range in size from and are mostly detritivores or scavengers. There are more than 9,900 amphipod species so far descri ...

. Even peppermint shrimp that feed on pest

Aiptasia ''Aiptasia'' is a genus of a symbiotic cnidarian belonging to the class Anthozoa ( sea anemones, corals). ''Aiptasia'' is a widely distributed genus of temperate and tropical sea anemones of benthic lifestyle typically found living on mangrov ...

anemones are often included. Sometimes it is used for the shallow sediment-dwelling animals that live in the

deep sand bed A deep sand bed isHow Sand Beds REALLY work
by Ronald L Shimek, PhD, in

marine aquarium A marine aquarium is an aquarium that keeps ocean, marine plants and animals in a contained environment. Marine aquaria are further subdivided by hobbyists into fish only (FO), fish only with live rock (FOWLR), and reef aquarium, reef aquaria. Fi ...

s or

s such as sand sifting starfish, spaghetti worms, bristleworms and

flatworm The flatworms, flat worms, Platyhelminthes, or platyhelminths (from the Greek πλατύ, ''platy'', meaning "flat" and ἕλμινς (root: ἑλμινθ-), ''helminth-'', meaning "worm") are a phylum of relatively simple bilaterian, unsegment ...

s. Clean-up crews have also more recently been used in

freshwater aquarium A freshwater aquarium is a receptacle that holds one or more freshwater aquatic organisms for decorative, pet-keeping, or research purposes. Modern aquariums are most often made from transparent glass or acrylic glass. Typical inhabitants include ...

s to control algae, detritus and pest snails. These often include various snails, shrimp, small

crayfish Crayfish are freshwater crustaceans belonging to the clade Astacidea, which also contains lobsters. In some locations, they are also known as crawfish, craydids, crawdaddies, crawdads, freshwater lobsters, mountain lobsters, rock lobsters, mu ...

, ''

Gammarus ''Gammarus'' is an amphipod crustacean genus in the family Gammaridae. It contains more than 200 described species, making it one of the most species-rich genera of crustaceans. Different species have different optimal conditions, particularly in ...

'' and ''

Hyalella ''Hyalella'' is a genus of amphipods found in the Americas. They are mainly found in freshwater habitats. Species The following species are recognised in the genus ''Hyalella'': *'' Hyalella anophthalma'' Ruffo, 1957 *'' Hyalella araucana'' ...

'' amphipods, ''

Asellus ''Asellus'' is a genus of isopod crustaceans in the family Asellidae. Species Asellus is divided into three subgenera which contain the following species: Asellus Geoffroy, 1764 *'' Asellus alaskensis'' Bowman & Holmquist, 1975https://biostor ...

'' isopods, ''

Cyclops In Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, the Cyclopes ( ; el, Κύκλωπες, ''Kýklōpes'', "Circle-eyes" or "Round-eyes"; singular Cyclops ; , ''Kýklōps'') are giant one-eyed creatures. Three groups of Cyclopes can be distinguish ...

'' copepods, ostracods, ''

Planaria ''Planaria'' is a genus of planarians in the family Planariidae. When an individual is cut into pieces, each piece has the ability to regenerate into a fully formed individual. Description Currently the genus ''Planaria'' is defined as fresh ...

'' flatworms, California blackworms,

sludge worm ''Tubifex tubifex,'' also called the sludge worm, "Boogie Worm", or sewage worm, is a species of tubificid segmented worm which inhabits the sediments of lakes and rivers on several continents. ''Tubifex'' probably includes several species, bu ...

Loricariid The Loricariidae is the largest family of catfish (order Siluriformes), with 92 genera and just over 680 species. Loricariids originate from freshwater habitats of Costa Rica, Panama, and tropical and subtropical South America. These fish are not ...

and ''

Corydoras ''Corydoras'' is a genus of freshwater catfish in the family Callichthyidae and subfamily Corydoradinae. The species usually have more restricted areas of endemism than other callichthyids, but the area of distribution of the entire genus almost ...

'' catfish,

loaches Loaches are fish of the superfamily Cobitoidea. They are freshwater, benthic (bottom-dwelling) fish found in rivers and creeks throughout Eurasia and northern Africa. Loaches are among the most diverse groups of fish; the 1249 known species of ...

log sucker ''Garra'' is a genus of fish in the family (biology), family Cyprinidae. These fish are one example of the "log suckers", Suckermouth, sucker-mouthed Barb (fish), barbs and other cyprinids commonly kept in Aquarium, aquaria to keep down algae. T ...

s and

siamese algae-eater The Siamese algae-eater (''Crossocheilus oblongus'') is a species of freshwater fish in the carp family, Cyprinidae. This bottom-dwelling tropical fish is found in mainland Southeast Asia, including the Chao Phraya and Mekong basins as well as ...

s. The term clean-up crew, along with custodian, has also been used for various arthropods, primarily a few established lines of terrestrial

woodlice A woodlouse (plural woodlice) is an isopod crustacean from the polyphyleticThe current consensus is that Oniscidea is actually triphyletic suborder Oniscidea within the order Isopoda. They get their name from often being found in old wood. ...

and

springtails Springtails (Collembola) form the largest of the three lineages of modern hexapods that are no longer considered insects (the other two are the Protura and Diplura). Although the three orders are sometimes grouped together in a class called Ent ...

, used in

terrarium A terrarium (plural: terraria or terrariums) is usually a sealable glass container containing soil and plants that can be opened for maintenance to access the plants inside; however, terraria can also be open to the atmosphere. Terraria are ofte ...

clean up since the late 1990s. The two most popular have long been the Spanish orange ''

Porcellio ''Porcellio'' is a genus of woodlice in the family Porcellionidae. These crustaceans are found essentially worldwide. A well-known species is the common rough woodlouse, '' Porcellio scaber''. Most of the hundreds of ''Porcellio'' species were ...

'' sp. (often falsely labeled ''P. scaber'') and a moderately large and prolific entomobryid known as the "giant" springtail. These small workers help to keep various small animal enclosures (for dart frogs, salamanders, centipedes, whipspiders, etc.) clear of decomposing food particles that otherwise can result in mold growth, mite infestations, or oxygen depletion from decomposition. Other terrarium clean-up crew inhabitants include various

millipedes Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name derived from this feature. Each double-legged segment is a resu ...

, soil

mites Mites are small arachnids (eight-legged arthropods). Mites span two large orders of arachnids, the Acariformes and the Parasitiformes, which were historically grouped together in the subclass Acari, but genetic analysis does not show clear evid ...

cockroaches Cockroaches (or roaches) are a paraphyletic group of insects belonging to Blattodea, containing all members of the group except termites. About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. Some species are well-known a ...

earthworms An earthworm is a terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. They exhibit a tube-within-a-tube body plan; they are externally segmented with corresponding internal segmentation; and they usually have setae on all segments. Th ...

, whiteworms,

bean weevil The bean weevils or seed beetles are a subfamily (Bruchinae) of beetles, now placed in the family Chrysomelidae, though they have historically been treated as a separate family. They are granivores, and typically infest various kinds of seeds ...

crickets Crickets are orthopteran insects which are related to bush crickets, and, more distantly, to grasshoppers. In older literature, such as Imms,Imms AD, rev. Richards OW & Davies RG (1970) ''A General Textbook of Entomology'' 9th Ed. Methuen 8 ...

darkling beetles Darkling beetle is the common name for members of the beetle family Tenebrionidae. The number of species in the Tenebrionidae is estimated at more than 20,000 and the family is cosmopolitan in distribution. Taxonomy ''Tenebrio'' is the Latin gen ...

ladybird Coccinellidae () is a widespread family of small beetles ranging in size from . They are commonly known as ladybugs in North America and ladybirds in Great Britain. Some entomologists prefer the names ladybird beetles or lady beetles as they ...

firebrat The firebrat (''Thermobia domestica'') is a small hexapod (typically 1–1.5 cm), in the order Zygentoma. Habitat Firebrats prefer higher temperatures and require some humidity, and can be found in bakeries and near boilers or fur ...

s, sun beetles and skin beetles.

References

See also