which hermit?

[Riona]

Hm, I'd read at Garf a while ago that scarlet hermits were the best reef safe hermit crabs out there. But I have read quite a few bad comments about them on this site, so I am not quite so sure that I should take their advice point blank...

I'd like a couple(no more than 2 likely) dwarf hermit crabs for my 10 gallon tank. What sort are the most reef safe? So far I've read the dwarf blue legs or the scarlets. Or would any dwarf hermit be about the same for agression levels?

 

[saltycreefer]

I like Scarlets, they seem to leave the snails alone.

 

[musty baby]

blue legs ate my astreas.

 

[SuperNerd]

Key is to not buy a boatload of them (which you obviously are not doing ) so they don't overeat anything and provide them with a bunch of variable sized empty shells to use. If they're starving they will be more prone to go after the things you like.

I've had both and the only times I've had problems was when the LR was devoid of things for them to eat (or when I barely fed the tank any food) and when they didn't have extra shells to jump into when it came time for them to grow. They need bigger shells to get bigger themselves and I theorize lmao: ) that if they don't have any shells of the right size laying around they will desperately look for the closest one ...and if this closest shell of the right size happens to be on the back of a live snail the crab will kill the snail, consume it, and then take residence.

The scarletts do get bigger (I believe there are two varieties) then the dwarf blue legs but the blue legs seem to be a little more active IMO.

 

[Mariner]

I have scarlet, blue legs and mexican red legs in my tanks. I can't tell a lot of difference between their behaviors. One of the scarlets that I've had for over 3 years is definitely bigger than all the rest. Mine like cerith shaped snail shells, but they leave astrea/turbo shells and snails alone.
I kept a blue leg in my 10 gallon back when I had it going and had no problems, except that I caught it dancing on top of a zoanthid colony one day. It didn't hurt the coral.

HTH,
Mariner