My experience with Hermits

[nawilson89]

I love the Hermit Crab. They're comical view of the world and different personalities make me enjoy them as a whole.

While not being typically reef-safe I have kept them in my aquarium for over a year.

This is by no way saying "Hey, everyone add hermits to you're tank! They're amazing!", I'm just relating how I feel about them.

When I first started my 29g tank I had... more than 15 hermits. Blue legged hermits to be exact. They were $.17 at a LFS so I bought them by the butt-load. First seeing them crawl haphazardly around the tank and up the rock work put a smile on my face. They fought over shells, explored the tank and rushed to food when it was available. They killed my first snails and took their shells, but they way they acted made it okay for me (and of course they never touched my cerith's so it was still okay).

Eventually I bought my first Scarlet Reef's (two of them who both died for unknown causes). They were completely different to my blue legged. Where my blue legs were active and funny. The Scarlet Reef were big, lumbering, behemoths. I bought a new one a few months ago who like the others is large, with long legs stretching when he walks. He's an explorer and likes to check out new things in the tank, but he's not as active as I like.

My favorite hermits though are my White Legged Hermits. Living so close to the Gulf of Mexico I'm able to harvest them myself. At first I couldnt find a single one, but then I saw it. These hermits buzz across the floor. To find them I had to locate the fastest things with shells moving. I have 4 in my aquarium at the moment and they are completely comical. The minute they hit the aquarium floor the were off in a blur. Their first encounter with the Scarlet Reef made me laugh. A larger lumbering crab slowly moving up to a new inhabitant. He went to grab it, but they little white leg jumped back and disappeared.

I love hermit crabs? Anyone else have these fun little guys in their tanks?

Oh did i mention? my LFS has a halloween crab and if it's there on payday... its mine.

 

[bratz79]

They are great. And I truly agree. Everyone should have at least 1. Lol

 

[fishroomlady]

I enjoy my little hermits too I need to go look up halloween crab. I'm really fond of inverts in general.

 

[prinaudo]

I have a electric blue, when it is feeding time I put some garlic favored pellets in tank and the crab will run over to get some. It is really funny if the crab is on some live rock.

 

[slowtoken77]

This is "Showtime". He's super fast, and will come to the front glass from where he is in the tank when I'm at the tank. He has so much personality! Follows my finger back and forth across the tank lol. He gets jealous I think when I got my hands in the tank doing maintenance or gluein down a new frag cause my peppermint shrimp climb all over my hands. They are pretty awesome too. Thanks for checking out my post!
Chris B.

 

[Dr.Reefgood]

I added hermits to my tank as well. Enjoyed them and thought they were pretty cool. Added bigger shells so they could move in to larger real state to accommodate their growing size. It got to the point that when i turned of the pumps they came out of the rock work ready to fight for a meal. That led to i could never feed my corals without them crawling all over everything and pulling food right out of the mouths of my acans and blasto's, as well as making sure all Z's n P's closed up. Actually causing damage to my Z's by scraping on them long enough they break off the rock work making them free float around the tank when pumps turn back on. So now i find them annoying. I actually throw them in my QT tank for days at a time. Returning them when i want them to do a little work in the display. They arent hard to get out, just throw some food in there then grab them by hand. So we have a love hate relationship.

 

[Intricateart]

We are neighbors and we also collect hermits locally. We have found them as small as a pinhead with a little shell while snorkeling. I won't say where but we have found blue legged hermits as well,our favorite too.

 

[nawilson89]

We are neighbors and we also collect hermits locally. We have found them as small as a pinhead with a little shell while snorkeling. I won't say where but we have found blue legged hermits as well,our favorite too.

Oh do you? Where do you collect if I may ask?

 

[Paul B]

I have been keeping hermits for almost 50 years, these guys were in my reef for about 12 years and both died with in a week of each other.

 

[Intricateart]

Oh do you? Where do you collect if I may ask?

The blue legs we have seen snorkeling in some of the PROTECTED state parks in small numbers. Better off just buying them, also illegal. Its cool to see them in the wild though.The other hermits are found all down the coast. There are some that get the size of a baseball. Also found hermits with symbiotic anemones on the shell.

 

[reggaedrummin]

I have had a mixed experience with hermits. I love their comical nature and they are a great addition to the Cuc but I too had struggles with them stealing good from coral and damaging the coral in the process. They are likely to be more of a nuisance to lps than sps and perhaps that's why my issues have subsided but I have several hermits in my tank now and they are trouble free. I recommend keeping to the "less is more" rule with them and rely on snail to do the bulk of your reef cleaning but realize that every animal is unique and compliments the next. I have 7 variety of snail, and a few different types of crab and together my cuc gets the job done without bringing harm to my coral in the process

 

[ReeferRookie]

I love my hermits but they love to climb on the algae. (Or coraline ) on my back wall its like they race. Unfortunately im not sure they have much left to eat i was feeding them the algae its all gone now tho. ? What do they eat. Is brine flakes okay ?

 

[nawilson89]

I love my hermits but they love to climb on the algae. (Or coraline ) on my back wall its like they race. Unfortunately im not sure they have much left to eat i was feeding them the algae its all gone now tho. ? What do they eat. Is brine flakes okay ?

They eat anything really. I feed my tank freeze dried plankton and when it sticks to the ground they rush over and grab some.