How to tell if something is dead?

Big Habeeb wrote:


Absolutely know what you're saying: my clown and cardinal, and even
the cleaner shrimp come tearing out of whatever they're doing like
gangbusters when they 'hear' the tank lid open. The goby, on the
other hand, has shown little interest in the foods being offered,
though I've seen him sifting my substrate like mad, and each morning
do notice that much of the sand has been moved...so I'm not terribly
concerned about him starving...though I may go by the LFS to see if
they have a food alternative for him as well...plus, its time to up
the cleanup crew. Phosphates are still at 0, but the algae growth is
still present, though nowhere NEAR as bad as previously. I guess for
a 72 gallon tank, I need more than 8 snails and 6 hermits. Don't plan
on adding more hermits, since the little guys are almost never out and
about where I can see them, but I am going to be adding another 5 or 6
snails this weekend.

All of my fish have gone through the hiding thing.....don't know too
much about gobies (yet) so maybe it is just normal behaviour....anyway
if you are now seeing more of him I would be my guess it is only a
matter of time....

One thing on the phosphates being 0 - mine are usually 0 but I also have
algae in the tank....algae will use up the phosphates making the results
a little bit deceptive......I guess the best situation is no algae and
still zero phosphates - a goal I am working towards as well....

As for clean up crew I recently found someone in the UK who specialises
in clean up guys and have got some interesting creatures from him not
much help to you I know but - Mexican turbos - the size of
golfballs.....banded stars that hide a lot of the time but do sometimes
come out to play (especially if the food is laced with garlic) but do a
great job on the substrate in their immediate area, small conches,
multiple snails of too many varied species to remember and one of my
favourite oddities which is an abalone - now this is a weird creature -
looks like a hairy slug but does an awesome job on the hair
algae....apparently it is a delicacy when eaten but I'm quite fond of
the chap....

Other recommendations for 'filling out' the cleanup crew? Keeping in
mind, the tank is still very young, only around 3 - 4 months in at
this point.

Snails (take a look at the Mexican turbos), hermits but only the same
type as you already have although I do understand that Halloween Hermits
might be OK as they like different shaped shells to the blue and red
legged.....I opted out of putting it to the test....Pin cushion urchins
might be a good plan but some will strip coralline or upset corals so
very much a YMMV kind of thing....

As the the 3 -4 month thing your best bet is to do things slowly but if
you are in to critters keep an eye out for the more unusual as they do
sometimes become available....

Gill

Mitch