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

[bkhunt]

No a hermit fan. In the past I have had many snail killed for their shells.

 

[steveschuerger]

Somewhat, mainly because they’ll eat snails and annoy corals by traipsing over them. My blue legs are fine overall and same goes for scarlet. Have some black ones that are the real offenders for snails especially, they’ve mostly landed in my refugium.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

I keep a mix of blue & red leg in my 120g. I don't worry about them, they are good for some detritus removal. I think I have two or three emerald crabs also, they work over GHA pretty good. In the end, the crabs should be worried about the Melanarus and Coris wrasse's!

 

[codenfx]

The blue/red leg killed a bunch of my snails. I had taken out all except 1 blue leg and donate to my LFS. I do see on occasion the blue leg running over the corals on the sandbed. I also have scarlet hermit crabs, they're good so far and not as aggressive.

 

[GoBlue923]

I put other because honestly they do what they do. They are cannibals. They are killers. They are hunted. At least in my tank. Outside of them killing the occasional snail (cycle of life stuff) they do a decent job of cleaning. They also kill each other. The real gate keeper for the inverts is my melanurus wrasse. Don’t let him catch a hermit or a snail slipping or it’s lights out. He has to be in the mood though. Or very very hungry. Sometimes the wrasse “gang” (leopard/melanurus/fairy) team up for some invert fun but usually it’s the melanurus. That’s just the cycle of life in my underwater kingdom. They have their place and serve their purpose. If the numbers get depleted I stop by the LFS and grab another dozen or so.

 

[Spare time]

Hermit crabs are the biggest scapegoats and boogeymen of the hobby.

If I ever commit a crime, I'll make sure to do it around a hermit crab as everyone in this hobby will blame it.

 

[Dakota_reef]

I know they can nibble on things they shouldn't be nibbling on from time to time, but I just love having them in the tank. They are fun to watch, and really don't do much to harm the tank (that I've noticed). What I HAVE noticed is that a lot of LFS and online retailers push "cleaner" packs that are probably overkill for most tanks unless you have an established sand bed and feed enough for them to eat.

 

[madweazl]

Wouldn't have a tank without them. I don't care was risk/reward they offer, I just like looking at a tank teaming with various life and they're a piece of that.

 

[Tamberav]

I have mexican red legs and blue legs and no risk except to each other. Sometimes they fight.

No risk to snails as I have trochus snails and trochus can flip themselves over and shake the crabs right off and keep on cruising.

 

[Indeva]

I only have one hermit left, a blue legged champ. He has killed all the other hermits and countless snails. While I write this I see him doing pushups in preparation to take on the turbo snails.

 

[Tamberav]

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.

you just need enough of them

 

[Tamberav]

One thing I find them good at is keeping gorgs and certain macro's clean... snails cant do that as they are a bit heavy or clumsy for finer branches.

 

[jtone_philthy_aquatics]

I’ve left them out of the past 4 or maybe even 5 systems that I have setup. Everything has gone well in those systems that lack the hermits. I feel like haveing a variety of snails for rock glass sand is more beneficial. Hermits can be fun to watch. I don’t like them climbing all over my coral that’s the reason I stopped. Someone also mentioned killing snails for shells. that’s guaranteed to happen if you don’t keep some spares scattered around!

 

[Jeff-Ft-Lauderdale]

I have several blue hermit crabs. Even before I got into Marine aquariums, I was a fan of Hermit crabs. I love them.

I have not observed them messing with any snails or any corals. But if they did mess with snails, I would not care (well...I might care if I had a conch, but I don't have any of those yet). I am happy to sacrifice a snail if one of them gets big enough to need the shell. But honestly...I have not seen any of them grow that big. They are less than half an inch and staying that way.

 

[jfoahs04]

I'm a hermit crab fan. No, they're not as good a CUC as snails (though they really are decent members of the CUC). And yes, they can be mischievous. But that's part of the fun in my opinion. They're added tank personality with some CUC benefit, so they'll always be in my tanks (blue legs and scarlets in particular).

 

[ying yang]

I voted somewhat .
Tank only running just over a year and only ended up putting one of the larger hermits in the sump so far as kept trying to murder my smallest conch snail ( which ended up dying few months after he in sump anyway .( same exact hermit as in revs first picture/ post)
I got 3 red legged and about 15 other different kinds and always see them picking at the rocks and sand so doing something .
But for me I enjoy watching them and if any if them at top of rocks when feeding my copperband with tweezers I always feed them bit if clam with tweezers also and still makes me smile everytime ha ha
But I always joke my tank is like a battle ground and everything trying to kill everything ha ha

 

[blazn]

I've been a fan of hermits for years but finally gave up on them and rely on nassarius, cerith, conch & trochus snails for my primary CUC members. All too often, I'd end up with one of those cute little hermits growing beyond the cute stage and start systematically taking out all other hermits and snails, regardless of having plenty of empty shells in the tank. Just this past year, I transferred to a larger tank and I had just the one large hermit assassin (2" shell). I added snails to the new tank, including a fighting conch and within a half hour, that hermit was riding the conch like a bronco. He's been permanently banned to a sump existence from that point.

 

[ying yang]

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

Ha ha just read that story and very funny and good use of words and well thought out,and a great imagination tje written must have Indeed

 

[Acros]

They are always trying to eat my diamond watchman goby.

 

[Aquajamin]

They always seem to eat my snails.
Also, I have not had any strange coral issues once I eliminated the crabs.