Do hermit crabs need to be in pairs of the same species?

[JingoFresh]

Wanting to add some different hermit crabs, such as scarlet reef, Halloween and electric blues. The latter 2 are more expensive so wondering if I can just have one of each and they can hang with the other crabs.

Or do they need to be with other members of their species?

 

[cloak]

As long as there's enough room in the tank, most hermits can hang out together without any problems.

 

[Crooked Reef]

They may kill each other but in my opinion it will have nothing to do with species in this instance. Some hermits are just more aggresive than others regardless of what they look like. It is an individual personality thing. You will have the same chance of having them live peacefully together if you get all one species or mix these three.

 

[kurt_n]

Agree with Crooked Reef... it's a roll of the dice and has nothing to do with species.

Back before I swore off hermits, I had one that was just psycho. It would kill off a bigger one just for it's shell - even though there were plenty of extra shells in the tank, like all the books said to do. Then two days later, it would switch back to its old shell, leaving the empty shell behind. It did this *all* the time. One day, I found it camped out in the middle of my acans... whacking its shell around side to side. Acans were not at all happy. I'm kind of ashamed to say, but at that moment I yanked the thing out of my tank and banished to my "yard sump". (That means I hucked it out the window next to my tank, into the front yard.) It didn't cause me problems after that.

Contrary to popular opinion, hermits are not a critical member of your cleanup crew. You can do without them. If you want them, they're fun to watch and will definitely keep things tidy. But if you keep certain LPS, they definitely can do physical harm to the corals as they drag their shells clumsily across them. Mine also seemed to take great pleasure in climbing to the top of my rock work, then flinging themselves off... normally onto something delicate. :mad2: