Hermit crabs yes/no?

[mstasa]

hi, i was wondering about whether i should get some hermit crabs for my tank. i have a 26 gallon bowfront reef tank. and as of now only have a sand dollar cleaning the substrate. i have a bit of algae on the live sand and it seems that the sand dollar cannot keep up. what are the pros and cons of having hermits. or what are some other reef safe live sand cleaners.?

stocking:

2 peppermint shrimp
3 astrae snails
4 bumble bee
2 cerith
1 large purple feather duster
1 firefish
and various corals.

thanks

pics will be up soon.

 

[neoalchemist74]

Get rid of the bumblebee snails they will likely eat your corals. describe your algea , color , texture and such.

 

[Mavrk]

Bumble bees are not reef safe. Hermit crabs are opportunistic feeders. They may be fine or they may eat at your corals. It is really hit or miss. Many people have no problems with hermits. Plus they kill snails. I personally don't risk it (or any other crab for that matter).

 

[sirreal63]

Bumble bees are not reef safe. Hermit crabs are opportunistic feeders. They may be fine or they may eat at your corals. It is really hit or miss. Many people have no problems with hermits. Plus they kill snails. I personally don't risk it (or any other crab for that matter).

Agreed...I have seen them kill snails with no intentions of taking the shell. They are little assassins and my tank does not need them. They aren't really that good for your CUC.

 

[ingtar_shinowa]

I dont like hermits for the above reasons, also, peppermint shrimp try to murder LPS corals IME.

 

[dawgphish]

Neither the crabs or pprmtshrmp work for me!

 

[sirreal63]

To clean the sand, a Florida Fighting Conch works better than any thing I have ever tried, unfortunately your tank is too small for one.

 

[jdargonaut]

I lost $30 in snails to a few hermits when I first added my clean up crew to my 29gal. No more hermits. Turbos, nassarius, fighting conches get my vote.

 

[Sharpie_]

I like my red legs and for the excessive feedings they allow I permit them a few snails each year. They are better detrivores than any other invert in my tank -aside from bristle worms- allowing the stray food to be skimmed out or used in my fuge.

having a fish die and having it's skeleton visible in less then a few hours is good too as it helps water from fouling.

 

[saleen2881]

so you can not put blue leg hermits in a tank with turbo snails?

 

[Frick-n-Frags]

blue legs are opportunistic trash. they are worthless for algae cleanup, but they will take care of excess food, snails, dead stuff.

red legs are the only hermits i ever had that just poked around in the dust and minded their own business.

bottom line: hermits are junk, super cheap to collect, super motivational for sellers to pander as CUC members due to huge profts from selling them.

 

[reefbegood]

small blue legs are ok and in my case eat turf algae but larger ones will knock things over eat snails cause polyps to retract. i would not go as far as calling them junk but they have lots of down sides.

 

[KeMo]

I have blue and red (scarlet) hermits in my tank, along with turbo's and other snails.
I find the blue leg hermits abit more aggressive. They will fight each other. The red legged ones are much more peaceful . They will sit right beside eachother doing their own thing.

 

[dfd189]

I am in the process of removing all the hermits from my set-up, absolutlely useless. I hope my LFS gives me some credit for them, they are all huge.

 

[DetectiveTofu]

I hate hermit crabs. I find them to be useless in all of the reef tanks I've had. IMO.

 

[scubasteve06]

I have only red legs because all the blue legs and neons blues and scarlets I had killed each other off. As others have said I find the red legs to not be so aggressive they like to clamber all over each other but don't fight amongst themselves. They seem to leave my ceriths alone for the most part. I'd like to get a brittle star and a sand sifting star, and a fighting conch and get rid of most of them. They do keep the sand very detritus free though.

 

[twelvejewelz]

I dont like hermits for the above reasons, also, peppermint shrimp try to murder LPS corals IME.

+1 they ate a 140$ acan that i got! I will never again get peppermint shrimp!!

 

[mstasa]

the algae is small turf like algae on a few spots in the live sand. greenish, light brown. i will have pics up tonight of it along with my tank. what type of invert can i buy that is able to get rid of that algae.

also i have had no problem with my bumble bee snails they just eat off the live rock and sometimes ill see one in the sand.

should i buy more astrae and cerith snails?

 

[GhostCon1]

Bumblebee snails are carnivores. They wont eat your corals; I have never even heard of such a thing happening. The main reason you don't want them is because they will eat other snails.

Also, I was skeptical about getting some hermits to help out with my algae problem in my tank because I have some snails. The hermits went to work right away devouring algae. I have red legged and blue legged ones. So far, so good. My snails generally stick to the side of the glass.

Oddly enough, the problem invert I have that eats my snails are my cleaner shrimp. I added two one day and the two cleaners took one and ate it. Also, some new trochus snails I got they eat everyone that gets flipped over on its back.

That is another thing with hermits and snails. If your snails flip over (land on their back) and can't get up, your hermits will go after it because: free meal, tasty meal, no work involved in it, and new shell (maybe!).

 

[whorulz1147]

scarlet reef hermits are the only ones I use.