Do you consider hermit crabs a RISK in your reef aquarium?

[revhtree]

It's been a while since we've collectively talked about hermit crabs. I remember countless topics created about which ones were reef safe and which ones were not only to find out that many people had differing results with the same crabs. So let's talk about it!

1. Do you consider hermit crabs a RISK in your reef aquarium?

2. What types of hermit crabs have you found to be reef safe?

 

[rtparty]

They are 100% a risk to eat snails for their shells. One can mitigate this by leaving empty shells in the tank for them to find and transfer to though.

I haven't run hermit crabs for over a decade. They provide very little benefit.

I do have 2 in my 120 that came on rock from a buddy's tank teardown. I don't recall seeing or looking for them in quite some time

 

[revhtree]

I haven't purchased hermit crabs in probably over 2 years. I have no idea how many I have as well. Maybe I need more? Maybe I need none? LOL!

 

[revhtree]

They provide very little benefit.

This is an interesting statement. Can you explain your thoughts on this a little more? Thanks.

 

[vlangel]

Not in my fuge and sump which is where they all live now, LOL. I voted other because they are fine where they are at but I do have feather duster worms in the DT and I caught one of the crabs on it. All mine are blue leg hermits. I never had any issues with them before I got the feather duster s.

 

[Grimmj]

I have some blue legs. They seem to forage in the sand and occasionally eat some algae off my rocks. I don't find that they pick on my snails much but I have some big turbos. I did find one eating whatever was growing on a turbos shell though.

 

[rtparty]

This is an interesting statement. Can you explain your thoughts on this a little more? Thanks.

What do they do? Maybe eat some leftover food?

I've never seen them decimate a tank of hair algae or anything. Usually they are opportunistic scavengers and even steal food from corals that capture it.

Snails are far better algae eaters and don't kill each other for shells.

If one is worried about leftover food, some nassarius or even bumblebee snails can help there.

 

[Dburr1014]

I added snails and Hermits back 6 years ago. The hermits are getting big but I don't remember the name, halloween maybe?
They are starting to knock over snails and feasting. They will be going to the sump soon.

 

[sevenx7]

I have 1 and only 1 that came with something, He ate 2 snails even though he had a few shells littered around for him. He's tasted blood and he couldn't get enough lol


I put him in the frag tank now where he lives his days to reflect on what he did, sometimes i let him in the display tank to clean up a few things on the rock as a thrill but I keep an eye on him. He's been behaving but I wouldn't consider him rehabilitated...

 

[Pelagikos]

I find that they are very beneficial in cleaning up all types of algae, etc. I started having some overgrowth due to a spike in nutrients, so added 10 bluelegs to my 50 gallon.
They cleaned up the rock within a week which was no small feat and they're adorable to boot!
If they happen to kill a few snails I can always replace them, and I find that adding empty shells as well, keeps these things in check.

 

[Mhamilton0911]

I have a group of murder hermits that won't allow most snails. They also steal food from corals which is annoying.

 

[SlugSnorter]

hermits are demons with little soulless eyes in a nano.

 

[New&no clue]

I had to dig through the depth of my build thread to find this link... If you want to know about hermits please read this

The Tale of a Sump Crab: An Autobiography

Genesis........................................1 Wayfarer.....................................2 Ementior.....................................3 Reconnection.............................4 Vitiated........................................5

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Sharkbait19]

I had to dig through the depth of my build thread to find this link... If you want to know about hermits please read this

The Tale of a Sump Crab: An Autobiography

Genesis........................................1 Wayfarer.....................................2 Ementior.....................................3 Reconnection.............................4 Vitiated........................................5

www.reef2reef.com

Loved that story!

I have blue leg and the Mexican red leg ones.
Completely harmless for me, maybe it’s just the emerald crab and pistol shrimp doing the real damage.
Give lots of shells and they should leave everything alone.
Though early on mine had a nasty habit of flipping frags.

 

[Jeeperz]

They kill snails and pick at corals looking for food. That said, I find them fun to watch, especially pitho and Halloween hermits

 

[alain Bouchard]

the biggest risk in most tank are human errors...for the rest, they are part of a balanced ecosystem

 

[Joe Rice]

I have probably 100 mostly small hermits in my 150 gallon tank. They're picking at the rocks all the time so I'm guessing they do eat algae. Recently put a few new rocks in that quickly turned green which clearly attracted the hermits' attention. Not sure why some folks think they don't eat algae. Certainly the folks at reefcleaners.org believe they do as they list which particular types of algae they've found each species of hermit crab to eat.

Also have dozens of snails which seem to coexist just fine with the hermits. That said, I did throw in many, many empty shells for the hermits as they grew.

 

[hiClouds]

99% of hermit crab problems is because they are an afterthought. If reefers put the same time into researching crabs as you do coral and fish you wouldn't have so many issues. Most research is done in the land hermit crab community where they are the only thing in the tank. They require more then just the algae on your rocks. Make them happy and they won't cause any problems.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I only use Scarlet Hermits. They eat less of my snails and less of each other FME. I hate any others for the most part. Unless I want them for a particular reason and do not mind them killing each other off.

 

[FrontRangeReefer]

The only risk that hermits have posed in my tank have been to each other - fighting over shells and things like that. Maybe eaten a snail or two, but my snail population is basically self-sustaining at this point. Otherwise, they haven’t touched corals or bothered any of my fish. As far as crustaceans go, my pistol shrimp has been a far bigger PITA to deal with…constantly flipping and burying acan and favia colonies.