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

[Fishfreak2009]

I love my hermits and keep a variety. I wouldn't run a reef without them. I just stick to certain species and make sure they get enough to eat. I have blue legs, red legs, scarlet reefs, halloween, and electric blues in my systems.

They all do a great job cleaning up leftover food and various algaes, and just add to the biodiversity and charm of a reef tank. I've never had issues with them hunting snails or killing one another so long as they have spare shells to move into and get enough to eat. I always stick a pile of spare shells of various sizes behind the rockwork for them

 

[SyracuseMatt]

I say no, within reason. Seemingly everything in our tanks is in survival of the fittest mode, being used to competing for food and space. My aggressive corals will send out sweepers but, my 'peaceful' corals will try to grow over everything in their path, depriving the other corals of light and space. I don't think any of the small 'reef-safe' hermits will do any irreversible damage in a healthy reef tank. Take out another hermit or two, maybe. Kill a snail for its shell (and a snack on the side), perhaps. But, on a relative scale, very 'reef safe' in my opinion. I can't say exactly how effective any of them are in terms of clean-up duty because my tanks have snails, urchins and hermits. Just got rid of a large radiating urchin for gnawing on a new pectina. Last straw.....

Matt

 

[damsels are not mean]

No, but that's because I don't do the store recommended 1 million hermits and 1 million snails per 10 gallons. I buy a few at a time and I chose the more docile scarlet hermits. I have never seen one attack a snail in the 10 years I've kept them and they all live 2-4 years. I believe the scarlet hermits just aren't very carnivorous, and if you compare the shape of their claws to those of the other common hermit crabs, they are very dainty and shaped like scissors instead of built to grip and crush. They also very rarely like any shells of the snails that are common the hobby in my experience, so maybe they never feel compelled to attack them.


When I got blue legs in the past they would always kill other snails and eventually just kill each other off.

I see hermits as ornamentals first and foremost. They are cool to watch but I don't think any hermits do much for your cleanup crew that isn't being done by bristleworms.

 

[SudzFD]

I have found the tiny hermit crabs to be no problem or harm. But large ones are aggressive and will walk over everything and eat anything including coral. So,

Tiny ones yes, I have about 8 in my 60g. Big ones no.

 

[Gargoyle]

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

I loved that tale. It reminded me of my 2 Halloween hermits, brought in to help with GHA but actually just chomped their way through approx 40 stomatella snails instead. Your story helped me resent them a little less, thank you. (Sherman and Herman say thanks too)

 

[RUKelly]

I have had different types of hermits in my 135gal. Tank for several years. I’ve noticed the ones I have left are red-legs and they don’t grow large. I have plenty of snails too and I like watching the crabs scourge in the sand/coral bottom for detrius and fish food morsels.

 

[Starganderfish]

I have a small hermit in each of my Nano tanks. They are awesome, good algae scavengers, helped clean things up.
BUT... when I added a third I picked up at the LFS, I immediately noticed a dip in my snail population. Confirmation was received when I peeked in the tank one day and saw the new Hermit busily prying a ZombieSnail out of it's shell, while standing next to two other empty shells. It was like a barbarian standing atop a pile of corpses.

There were multip[le empty shells of various sizes in the tank already, this Hermit was just a jerk. Suffice to say he went back. The other two remain in the tank and are model citizens. They've both even upgraded to larger shells without going after snails. It just depends on the crab I think.

Also, you can really only get yellow leg hermits here in Aus and I've heard they're a lot more prone to snail hunting than reds or blues?

 

[ying yang]

They are always trying to eat my diamond watchman goby.

Is that a hermit crab hanging on under the fishes mouth ?

 

[RUKelly]

I’ve had different varieties of hermits in my 135-gal. tank for several years. Currently I only have red-legged hermits and I like watching them scourge for detirus in the sand/coral substrate. They don’t seem to bother my snails and I have plenty.

 

[guysmiley]

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

 

[Acros]

Is that a hermit crab hanging on under the fishes mouth ?

Yup, it is. I went in there with tongs that made the fish move enough to get the crab off its mouth. I don’t think the hermit crab survived as it seems to have come off its shell.

 

[G Santana]

I don't but my CUC DO.
Caught RED HANDED
.. or clawed!!!

 

[joshywhite1]

i don't class them to be chuck out because of icy because icy can be remove just like every other fish or even coral the main porpuse is so you keep your fish well feed on garlic foods and slab ethire way you need to not let it get out of control plus side the crabs stay there to clean anyway even though crabs do mainly have icy but the thing is that shrimp have them to but i say no because every criter help with anything thats needs cleaning so with out clean up crew you might need them so my answer is no

 

[BubbleBuddy]

I have a mix of blue leg, red leg, and zebra hermits. Outside of occasionally knocking down a frag or two the only threat they pose is to each other. They never target the snails but will hunt each other down periodically for a shell.

 

[ScubaScott]

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?

I run a 170 FOWLR with local South Florida reef species I catch myself. I had three red hermits (not sure of the species), but they are the common hermits you see here. They thrived and started growing like weeds. When they got to inhabiting shells that were 3-4 inches long, they started picking my Astrea snails off the rock and eating them. I ended up returning the two big ones to the ocean and only kept the small one, which so far has left the snails along. I have a couple dozen of the tiny blue leg hermits as part of my clean up crew. They don't bother anyone. They aren't big enough to. I was sad to lose the big hermits: they would sift the sand with their legs, which I think was beneficial for my sand bed.

 

[ying yang]

Yup, it is. I went in there with tongs that made the fish move enough to get the crab off its mouth. I don’t think the hermit crab survived as it seems to have come off its shell.

Amazing how still/ relaxed your fish looks with a crab hanging off its mouth ha ha
Maybe the hermit seen a cleaner shrimp cleaning fish and thought " hey I can do that " so he gave it a go lol
But on serious note I would truly consider putting that hermit in my " sump jail" but at same time would be thinking did the fish try grab the hermit and the hermit fought back then not the hermits fault ^_^
Think it was you who said your fish continually grabs and tosses hermits around tank if hermits get to close to his stuff ? If so then idk lol
But never seen a hermit clinging to a healthy fish before, reminds me of seeing a foxface with an aiptasia sticking on its side pffft

 

[rmorris_14]

Yes, but they are so CUTE! ;Shy

 

[rgulrich]

Dwarf blue leg. About 150, most of which are over 2-3 years old. Still dwarf. Must have propagated somehow, as there's a bunch of very small hermits in there. Share the reef with lots of different shrimp, emerald crabs, trapezia crabs, multitudes of different snails of all sizes. And a bunch of well fed fish.
Used "rubble" for a strong current substrate, and there are/were lots of extra shells in there.
I consider them part of the package deal of a robust reef biotope, and enjoy watching them roam around.
Cheers,
Ray

 

[Uncle99]

Got rid them completely 5 years ago.
Happy ever since, so are my snails.

 

[Joe's 220 Reef]

Never had an issue aside from maybe killing a few snails here and there. Imho they are very good for cleaning up any food that gets hidden in crevices and if something dies and you can’t find it to remove it