Hermit Crabs

[mutts]

I don't like them, but I know they are good for reef tanks. So which ones stay small and are most likely not to kill snails (or keep growing and need to kill snails).

I know zebras are bad, but I was looking into some blue leg ones. Let me know what you all think.

[reef123]

I have 5 hermit crabs in my tank. i don't know what kind they are though. there small, about the size of a dime and are mostly red with blue legs.

they like to eat my algae and keep it under control.

[Iconz]

Blue legs are the most passive. Followed by red (which will attack snails) and then zebras. I don't know about any of the other kinds, but that's the info I have on those 3.

[mburke]

I have both blue and scarlet hermits in my tank. HAve not ever seen one bother a snail that was not already doa. Both do a good cleanup job. The blue seems to like the sand and the red like the rock areas. Also when I feed the tank these guys go nuts. You can hear their shells banging into the glass chasing the extra food around.

[reef123]

My blue ones are always climbing all over the rocks piking at algea and stuff. mine go crazy when i feed the tank also. they've never picked on my snails though. they climbe over them, but don't seem to have any interest in them though.

[JustDavidP]

The only time a hermit crab will attack a live snail is if you don't have the proper environment for hermit crabs....

If you keep hermit crabs, it is ONLY FAIR that you keep a smallish selction of empty shells somewhere in your system. Yeah, it may be an eye sore, so do what I do, keep them in the back corner of the system, out of sight. The crabs will tune into the location and will often "shop" there.

Hermit crabs adopt homes. Unlike the snails who actually grow the shells on their backsides. If you do not provide additional, larger shells, with "like" openings (you'll probably note that blue crabs prefer longer, conical shells and scarlets, zebras etc, prefer shorter, rounder shells) the crabs will have nowhere to move into as they molt, and grow larger. This will ultimately cause their demise.

Dave

[pass1over]

the zebra hermits are mean little critters. I had a huge one that seemed to change his shell once a week, and he always went after one with a snail in it.

more often than not i would walk by the tank and see him tormenting a snail or another hermit, a lot of times the tormentee was in a shell to0 small for the big guy to fit in.

funny thing was, when i would walk up and lo0k at him, he would stop and casually walk away. i could imagine him whistling and saying .. what? i wasnt doing a thing

got rid of them and have blue legged and scarlet now. the scarlets LOVE to eat hair algae

[Sweetpea]

My blue legs are so funny to watch at feeding time! I, too, can hear their shells banging on the glass in their hurry to snag as much yummy stuff as possible! I have scarlets, too, and the blue legs I've had seemed to be more of the trouble-makers, just in my experience. I don't like having hermits at all because they like to steal meaty foods from the corals, but I know they are beneficial, so...

[carpenterwrasse]

I have a snail that actually commited murder on a conch...I saw him pulling at something and after closer examineation he pulled the conch from his shell and was chowing down the bad thing was he didn't take the shell..a little pricey meal for that guy...about a week later i saw him attacking my other conch i saved that one the crab now resides in my sump and eats anything that i put in there...i put some macro in there about a month ago and by the next morning i had none....this crab must go but i can not just kill him so till the time comes he is staying put...

[hummer]

i like the blue ones too thats what im gona get....