blue leg hermit: hardiest reef pet!

[squishifishi]

Well, I officially think that dwarf blue leg hermit crabs must be the most hardy little guys that you could possibly get(aside from pests that we want to kill... those don't count!)
Anyway, let me tell you about the ordeal mine faced being introduced to my tank. this was my very first saltwater aquarium. I went to the store and got a bag of live sand and a live rock. In the rock was a little hermit crab. I plucked him off and stuck him in a seperate bag to acclimate, then filled up thetank with water, sand and rock. I figured I should use ro water, so I grabbed a jug from the fridge. first mistake. you know, it didn't even occur to me that the fridge water would be cold! Anyway, for acclimation, I let him float for about 15 minutes. 2nd mistake. reef critters should be drip acclimated and over a longer ammount of time! So, his first day was in a 59°f tank that was uncycled. forthe next week he had to deal with my trial and error in temperature, salinity, lighting, and who knows what else until I got it right! The tank has now been running for almost a month, and little Miko is still scuttling about! He has also had a sucessful moult! Thus, I say that these truly are fantatic and sturdy creatures!
Although I certainly would never recomend purposely putting an animal into an uncycled unstable tank, I would certainly reccomend blue leg hermits to anyone looking for a hardy and cute invert addition!

and,Don't worry, when I pick up his new friends for this tank, they will have a much more pleasant intro!
enjoy these guys!
thanks!

 

[humaguy]

they are wonderful little creatures and ones accustomed to wild swings in temp and water chem...they also do great job helping to keep tanks clean, I love them too! did yoy know you can buy them in bulk from reefs2go? get him some friends, lol...very glad yours survived the ride and that you are enjoying it...drop in a small piece of fresh uncooked shrimp as a treat! good luck!

 

[squishifishi]

Yeah, i saw those ones on reef2go! sadly though, he's in a pico and i don't think i can fit 50 crabbies in a 3gallon, lol! He's actually living off of algae wafers right now because that's what i had on hand. i'm gonna pickup some mysis though when i go to pick up a few more crabs. next time i eat shrimp i'll throw in a chunk! i bet they love that!
one cute behavior of his:
at nighttime, he climbs up to a perch right under the filter. he likes to sit facing the current there so that the water blows in his face. probably catching food bits or something but i think it's way cute!
do yours have cute/funny behaviors?

 

[humaguy]

lol, yeah, you dont want 50 in a 3 gallon...mine mostly try to avoid being eaten by my fish...but it is cute to see them run to get a piece of food...I like hearing their shells clank againt the glass at night when they are real active! also fun to see them drop a shell and move into a new one...

 

[squishifishi]

cute! i've never watched mine switch, but he has done it a few times!
i love the clink sound too!

 

[Decadence]

I had a couple of nasorious snails live in a DSB in the sump of a tank which had been taken down five month ago. The water had a hard film over it so there was no oxygen exchange. There was no light, not top-off water, no new food, nothing. When I realized they were in there, the water was 60 degrees, the salinity was around 1.038, outrageously high nitrates and phosphates from all of the macro which had died, etc.... now they are happily eating away in my big tank. The kicker is that not only did they survive, they spawned!

 

[squishifishi]

Wow! those nass. snails are the next thing i plan to add. i need some sand churning too. glad to hear they're strong!

 

[SushiGirl]

Animals tend to spawn when they think they're about to die. A last ditch effort to keep the species going! Squishi, you can also buy Hikari Crab Cuisine. They're little pellets that your crab will love & contain the iodine that inverts need to ingest to promote healthy molting. Our hermits & shrimp love them. Even 2 of my fish will steal them LOL. The nassarius snails will love them too.

 

[squishifishi]

ok, i'll look into that! i was just gonna do mysis, but that sound even better, and probably is cheaper? do you think clown gobies would eat them too?
thanks!

 

[Reeferz412]

I feed jumbo krill with ocean nutrition flakes. I throw the jumbo krill in a food processor and let chop up into find particles for the fish. Then mix the flakes with the krill. My blue hermits go crazy for this stuff.

My nass snails are great scavengers as well. They eat anything! They have been with me since the beginning.

 

[squishifishi]

cool.
another question:
i've heard some people have issues with their blue leg hermits killing snails. I really need to get some snails in there though, because mybrown and green algae is growing crazy! i have 5 shellsof various sizes in there for him.
would it be better to get snails thatare bigger than him (so he can't kill them) or smaller(so he won't want their shells)?
i'm wanting ceriths for algae and a nass.for the sand.
thanks!

 

[Reeferz412]

I have had snails with my hermits forever. Their shells are not big enough for the hermits. Reecleaners.org sells spare shells for very cheap of all sizes. I bought a pack of hermits and snails together and threw them all in and a pile of spare shells. the hermits never bothered the snails.

 

[SushiGirl]

In the years I've been doing this I've only had one hermit kill one snail, and that was because it didn't get fed for a few days while I was out of town. If you feed it like a pet you're less likely to have any trouble with it. Most people just toss in snails & crabs assuming they'll just scavenge, and if you don't make sure they actually get fed, they will scavenge...anything they can get their little claws on! I liken it to putting a dog & a cat in a locked room & expecting them to find their own food. Of course the dog will end up eating the cat, right? Most people don't look at their "clean up crew" in that way, and IMO that's why they end up saying crabs are evil, mean, etc. They're not, they're just hungry.

 

[squishifishi]

oh, that's sad! i spot feed everything! i even spot feed every single one of my freshwater fish including baby mollies, crabs, shrimp, puffers. all my fishes have learned to come to my mini purple baster type tool to be fed individually!CUC are alwas my favorites in both sides of the hobby i think they have more personality and unique behaviors. so, yeah i guess i won't have an issue!