hermit crabs: good vs. evil

[newbieneedshelp]

Okay, when I first started out, everywhere I went and everyone I talked to siad Hermit crabs are great.

So I ordered six! 2 blue leg, 2 zebra, and 2 red tip. My blue legs got in a fight the other day, chipped their shells. Nothing big. One of my zebras completely destroyed a blue leg today. I wake up, the lights go up, and there's my little zebra, chomping away with his head burried inside of the blue leg's shell. So I've done a little reserach, and I've heard that these hermit's aren't all they are made out to be. I've also heard nassarius snails are beginning to take their place.

Now for the big question. Will they be this violent with my corals and fish when I get them? (only 5 weeks old)

 

[brhibler]

You should have read up on hermits.
The best ones are the Red led and Scarlet reef hermits.
Blue legs will always create a problem.

I had 3 blue legs and 3 scarlets. The it turned into a 1.5" blue leg and a scarlet.

I bought 5 red legs and one scarlet friday and haven't seen the blue leg harass them yet.

 

[newbieneedshelp]

Now, I had heard bad things about Scarlets, and just recently, red tips, but you say scarlets and red tips are fine. My red tips haven't been troublesome at all, but my blue leg and zebras have been a little on edge...

 

[brhibler]

I just witnessed my blue leg having a few words with my red tips. Then he went on. I guess they fight over the houses on thier backs.

 

[newbieneedshelp]

hmm.... probably is. I see my zebra running around in the blue leg shell.... just a little worrisome, considering I have empty shells laying in the tank.

 

[wizardgus®]

I know what you mean. When I started I got all kinds of differing advice re: hermits. My Scarlets were killing machines. The Zebras have to be hands down the worst predators I've had the misfortune to have in the tank. Say goodbye snails! My experience with the Red-tipped was very good. Never saw them go after anything other than algae. However, when they got the algae cleaned up the started stripping corraline like crazy. Still, I may get some more of them one day.

Crabs are a crap shoot. Probably why Dr. Ron is so against them in a reef tank. My best have been my 3 Emerald crabs. I had a Sally Lightfoot that was a great algae cleaner until he got big. Then he shifted into predator mode, wiped out my fan worms, when I caught him lunging at my Perculas and Angel...well he found a new home.

 

[newbieneedshelp]

Wow... so your reccomendation is to get them out of the tank?

I've heard terrible stories from emerald crabs, eating corals and attacking fish... so I don't know if I want to get one of those...

BTW: I was wrong, the zebra didn't take the shell, just killed, ate a little and left, and I can't find the remains or other shell...

Should I just get more snails?

 

[wizardgus®]

Ok, if it were me, (and bear in mind this is my opinion you may want to get others) I would keep the red-tipped if you have some algae for them to eat. As I said they were very industrious algae eaters in my tank. The zebras I have never seen do anything but hunt. I don't have any experience with blue-legs, but have not read much good about them. As for the Emeralds, do a search here using Emerald and Mithrax as key words. The overwhelming experience with them has been very good. When I was researching them prior to purchase I had to wonder if the few with horror stories truely had Mithrax or some other species. But, I have little fish and big Emeralds and they pay no attention to each other at all. If you look at their claws they are cupped, really not predators utensils. Big plus is they eat the nuisance algae no one else will, i.e. Valonia and Hair. But, for your overall clean-up crew I would say that snails are the way to go. Cerith, Nassarius, Nerites, Trocus, Turbos and strombus. That way you kind of hit every niche.

 

[newbieneedshelp]

hmm.... more research required. The blue leg's haven't done anything bad yet. The zebras have been crazy, so far killing one, but they move fast. I may get emeralds... I don't know. My tank is 30 gallons. When all of my algae is gone, I may do a trade for some snails with my hermits

 

[getoutofmyway]

I have had no problems with my hermits after I started putting extra shells in the tank they started to gang up or pick on each other so they could get a new shell to grow into, So once i put some various types of snail and old hermit shells in there they left each other alone!!!

 

[littleprince]

First, you need to be feeding your reef janitors. Even if you have algae, an occasional feeding isnt a bad thing.

2nd and very important for hermits, is you need extra shells. Otherwise they'll fight/kill each other for shells, or kill your snails.

Otherwise I've had no problems as of yet.

 

[figuerres]

One problem is there must be over a dozen kinds of the smaller hermits.... and god knows how many small ones are just babys that grow to quite large guys....


if you can verify that the varity you get is small and stays small they should be ok. there is a very tiny blue that www.tampabaysaltwater.com sells that I have had for over 6 months, I have not seen them get hardly any larger at all and they are seeming to do a good job of cleanup....


but all crabs if hungry will try and eat any thing they can get at.... thats what crabs do.

 

[ausnakeguy1]

Okey question, to add to all of the above discussions. I have Blue legs, and they seem to graze algae every once in a while, and yes they do fight, UGH........ They killed all of my snails, the butt heads. Now on the other types, Scarlets, and Red tips, which of the two are the calmest and which of the two won't eat my coraline. I am protective of my coraline, you start eating that, and you must go.

Now with the larger crabs, between Sally Light foot, Mithrix, and Emerald, which one is the least agressive, i've seen Sally light Foots and they sure do seem to do a great job at cleaning up stuff, WOW. I have not witnessed Mithrix or Emerald. Any suggestions on the above. Thanks for the help.

ANd when my algae DOES go away, which of the crabs will be happy with scrounging for their food instead of grabbing my fish and snails.

THanks

 

[newbieneedshelp]

Update: I was wrong, the zebra didn't take the shell. Just killed him and left him. He's now running around the tank... just running, not eating much

My zebra's and blue legs... blue leg are all very small. My red tips are a little more than 3 times as big It's kinda scary watching them crawl around my tank. I'm always afraid they are going to chomp into one of the other snails, but they don't. They just mow down my algae lawn... and they do it well ^_^

I'm unsure if I'm going to be getting any of the other crabs, if any, probably emerald, we'll see

Just a quick question. How long do you leave your lights on?

I had my 10,000k on for 12 hours (7am-7pm) and my actinic blue on for 12 (6am-8pm) I figured out that that may be causing my algae problem, but lots of other things flourish with the light as well. After asking around, the answer that I recieved the most was "Cut it in half!"

Since I thought that was a little much, I've lowered my 10,000k to 7 hours (10am-5pm) and my actinic blue to 8 hours (9:30am-5:30pm)

Just want to check with this site on what you think, because you guys almost always have different answers than the rest. Example: the hermit crabs considered evil. Not many had said that until I came here.

By the way, I have little bug like things crawling on my glass... kind of like lines... copapods (spelling?) I think. But there are also things that look like an evolution of those. They look like mini suns. They have the dot (pencil dot sized) and then there are 8 things that look like the line copapods (spelling) symetrical around it. Like a sun!

And one more thing. My snails have been laying eggs like crazy and I've only had them 10 days! They are everywhere! At least I know something other than algae is doing well in my tank

Once more: Thanks for all of your help!

 

[figuerres]

I have not heard of a mithrax / emerald crab as a problem...


leave the small blues and sell any others back to your LFS or setup a small "Crab Tank" or put them in your sump where they can't mess with other guys.... the larger ones can and will eat smaller crabs and snails of even large size.

but I do think hermits are cool just not when allowed to ravenge other stuff.


PODS: sounds like you have some good pods going.

the mini-stars may be several things.... there are some star fish that stay small like that and other larve that pass thru a mini stage.... just keep watching and see what grows into what...

Light:

adjust based on what you have.... do you have any corals that need light yet?

if not then run the lights enough to keep things looking good
and keep pruning alge and changing water with RO/DI till it slows down.... it will in time.
I'd wait on adding any other life till after the alge recedes unless it was say a "Tuxedo Urchin" which may help with alge controll.

 

[littleprince]

The star like things are in the hhfaq.
And have been mentioned several times on this board recently. I love the hermits. Thats my opinion. Next month I might hate them if they suddenly start eating into my corals. But for me they are an interesting part of the tank.

I find my blue legged most aggressive too each other, but they dont bother anything else. The scarlets seem a little lazier. They go for algae, but dont seem as active as the blue legged. The zebras seem to hide more for me. Not as active as the blue legged again, but very fast when they want to be.

Emerald crab: i have no clue what mine eats. Its not bubble algae, and I've never seen him eat normal algae. He loves to hide, and probaly eats something at night. Every morning I find him in a different part of the tank usualy in the smallest crevice possible, and he stays there the rest of the day.

 

[newbieneedshelp]

Okay, big UPDATE: I found the same crab trying to eat one of my nassarius. I thought that he was dead, and decided to put them both in my dad's tank. My dad has an 80 gallon, and it has lots of fish. I probably wouldn't have been able to sell them to one of the lfs, but I don't know if these two small crabs will be able to survive in my dad's tank. It'll be interesting. They've just been running along the edge of the glass so far, and the fish haven't been able to catch them yet. BTW: these are my two zebra crabs.

So, after I put them in that tank, I turn around, and my nassarius is still alive... barely. He had a bite taken out of him and wasn't very happy, but he was alive! And then I found the other crab that I thought my zebra killed... moving on my rock! I guess the zebra was mad, but couldn't kill them. I moved the two zebras to my dad's tank when they started fighting. Really fighting! They were circling each other and lunging at each other! It was amazing! But, I didn't want that to happen to anything else in my 30 gallon, so I moved them.

Is this a bad idea?

My other crabs are doing fine right now Put a piece of krill in the tank and they love it. My huge red tips are being very friendly, but I may get rid of them eventually.

I am DEFINATELY NOT getting any more crabs! just to let all of you know.... except maybe an emerald if I can be convinced of safety

All that's left in my tank are two very large red tips and two smaller blue legs, which are enjoying all of the algae and the krill in my tank (I hope that's all they ever do!)

okay, done with update, now to "reply" to your posts.

YAY for pods and starfish!

What are the downfalls of a tuxedo urchin? Would they attack corals or fish or snails... or me? But they look cool!

Okay, I've been talking to this one guy from this site about buying some green star polyps ^_^ It will probably be my first coral! But, I'm not sure if any thing will bother it... do you think?

Where's the hhfaq?

Oh! another UPDATE: my glass is getting covered with snail eggs!

Thanks for the help!

 

[newbieneedshelp]

UPDATE: the two crabs are still alive in my dad's tank

Okay, question, do you know what kind of crab this is? I bought it as a blue leg... but it doesn't have blue legs

 

[newbieneedshelp]

also, what is growing on my red tip's shell?

 

[newbieneedshelp]

Here's another shot of the stuff on it's shell