Mitchell Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 What's your opinion on having hermit crabs in reef tanks? Some places say they are no risk others say they are. My new tang makes quite a mess with his nori sheets and is pooping more than a cow. I would like to have something that cleans up after him, but I don't want a 25 cent crab eating my $100 dollar coral in the future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fpd4308 Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 I have never had a hermit crab damage anything except my snail population but maybe I am just lucky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoralCrazy Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 My hermit crab clean my frags but never damage them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchell Posted November 23, 2010 Author Share Posted November 23, 2010 What kind of hermits do you have? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoralCrazy Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 I have red leg and zebra Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 Some hermits are more prone to eat coral flesh than others. All of them are opportunists though and will eat whatever they can get. I.E. It's a risk. It's also a risk putting a tang into a tank with corals also even if it is supposedly reef safe. I.E. In this hobby you can always find the exceptions to the rule. That said your going to find that most of us have at least a few hermits. I think I have about 6 of them in my tank (about 140 gallons) and they don't touch the corals other than cleaning a bit of algae around them. They do occasionally knock frags off the rocks so I have to check a couple of times a day in case one gets knocked over. (Not a problem since my tank is in the living area) Not nearly as bad as the turbo snails though which I will never again put in my display. (The last couple got banned to the sump) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReeFit Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 most the time if a hermit is eating your corals its usually because the coral is already dieing off. I have about 350-400 hermit crabs in 6 tanks and about 5 different species, mostly hawaiian zebra hermits. i don't have any problems with them hurting my corals. I feed heavy and i have a fair amount of fish so it keeps them working and staying out of trouble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackaninny Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 Zebras seem pretty tame. I added some Mexican Reds and they went right after my snails and some of the zebras. Might have just got some naughty reds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchell Posted November 23, 2010 Author Share Posted November 23, 2010 Some hermits are more prone to eat coral flesh than others. What types are more prone? I like the looks of scarlet hermits, but they are pretty expensive online (for hermits) and I have never seen them in stores. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 What types are more prone? I like the looks of scarlet hermits' date=' but they are pretty expensive online (for hermits) and I have never seen them in stores.[/quote'] Zebras and blue legs seem to be the best with some red legs being okay. I have a couple of scarlets that have been fine. I've also had a couple of electric blue in the past but they get bigger and can be a bit aggressive. I've seen both blue leg and red leg crabs having battles with each other but they didn't go after any corals. Do keep in mind that any snails or even other crabs are at risk if they have a shell that may be a similar or slightly larger size than what they have. I.E. They will often attack them to obtain (or sometimes just to test the fit of) a new home. This will occur regardless of what type of hermit it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 I have had trouble with bigger hermit crabs not so much intentionally eating the corals but just when they get to a certain size knocking over corals, moving corals. I found what I really like now is the little dwarf hermits. As far as hermits going after snails they will do this but sometimes it is to steal the shells. The ones I had the problem with were the Caribbean but they worked well in the FOWLR tank. Rick is also right about Tangs. Most people have no problem but I just had to remove my 2 hippo tangs that I raised from tiny little babies because they started eating my LPS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanktop74 Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 +1 on what emerald said.... We put a bunch of hermits in our sump when we broke down our FOWLR tank. They have done an awesome job at cleaning up all the detris in the sump, if you are worried maybe just put a few to keep the sump clean. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReeFit Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 I have yet to actually witness hermits killing a snail. I'm sure they are capable, but i would tend to think the snails die off faster than the hermits can kill them so they just take the empty shells. I personally think snails are way more sensitive to parameter changes and starvation than we think. But most are cheap and they do provide homes for our hermits. I too like the smaller dwarf hermits, they spend more time cleaning the rocks than running around combating for left over scraps of fish food floating on the ground. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 I have yet to actually witness hermits killing a snail. I'm sure they are capable' date=' but i would tend to think the snails die off faster than the hermits can kill them so they just take the empty shells. I personally think snails are way more sensitive to parameter changes and starvation than we think. But most are cheap and they do provide homes for our hermits. I too like the smaller dwarf hermits, they spend more time cleaning the rocks than running around combating for left over scraps of fish food floating on the ground.[/quote'] I have seen some of the larger hermits go after a snail that has flipped over. You're right sometimes the snail was already dead. That's why I like Trochus snails because they can flip themselves over. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReeFit Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 I have seen some of the larger hermits go after a snail that has flipped over. You're right sometimes the snail was already dead. That's why I like Trochus snails because they can flip themselves over. And you don't wanna know what goes on inside the hermit huddles in my tank. What happens in reefit's garage stays in reefit's garage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emerald525 Posted November 23, 2010 Share Posted November 23, 2010 And you don't wanna know what goes on inside the hermit huddles in my tank. What happens in reefit's garage stays in reefit's garage. LOL! I thinks Steve (Saltfinsax) referred to this in a thread. He called them hermit crab "sex parties"(laugh). His words not mine folks!(nono) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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