An all hermit CUC

[DLreef]

Every year it seems I need to replace my snails, from Reef cleaners.com the first year they slowly died for some unknown reason. Maybe not enough food, I don't really know. Next year I bought another pack, the nerites and Nassarius Snails quickly died off, possibly because of the 3-4 dwarf hermits that hitched hiked in with the snail pack? Still got a ton of dwarf cerith and a couple of the larger cerith. So what if I went all hermit crabs? Its just a thought, but im wondering if anyone has tried this before.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

The only hermit crab to get is the scarlet legged hermit. They are great cleaners and will not kill anything. Normal blue legged and others will kill just for sport or if they feel they need a new and larger shell even thought he one they currently have is way too big for them. I've thrown every blue legged hermit I had into my sump, they've killed each other off until I only have half a dozen or so now. I only allow the scarlet legged ones live in my DT. At some point your algae load won't support too many snails or hermits, so nature will balance them out. I've only got a few mixes snails and can honestly say I only think two of the scarlet legged ones out of the 3 that I started with.

 

[cloak]

If your going to go the all hermit crab route you might as well just do the work IMO.. They can climb up the silicone in the corners, but that's about it... Mag-Float? GL.

 

[DLreef]

Its a thought, if I use a mag float for the walls then all I will need is the sand bed/rock. got plenty of shells from all the snail die off the last couple of years.

 

[jayball]

The only hermit crab to get is the scarlet legged hermit. They are great cleaners and will not kill anything. Normal blue legged and others will kill just for sport or if they feel they need a new and larger shell even thought he one they currently have is way too big for them. I've thrown every blue legged hermit I had into my sump, they've killed each other off until I only have half a dozen or so now. I only allow the scarlet legged ones live in my DT. At some point your algae load won't support too many snails or hermits, so nature will balance them out. I've only got a few mixes snails and can honestly say I only think two of the scarlet legged ones out of the 3 that I started with.

I am with him on the scarlets vs. blue-leg. The scarlets get much bigger as well.