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

[BamaCoastPyrat]

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

Can you buy empty shells for the hermit crabs?

 

[Sharkbait19]

Can you buy empty shells for the hermit crabs?

Yes
Many stores will let you pick them up, or you can find them online (just get small ones and not the ones for the big land crabs).

 

[frizzayyyyreef]

Love hermit crabs only problem is them killing snails for their shell

 

[The_Skrimp]

A necessary risk, but yeah. They’re definitely not harmless. I’ve had bigger ones pick at coral and kill other inverts especially other crabs and snails. I tried a handful of different kinds of hermits early on and most of them come with their own problems. Blue legs and scarlet reef hermits are the only ones that I’ll put in my tank anymore.

 

[BamaCoastPyrat]

Yes
Many stores will let you pick them up, or you can find them online (just get small ones and not the ones for the big land crabs).

I feel like you are becoming my personal aquarium sherpa! Thanks again Sharkbait!

 

[Balthazar]

No hermit crabs for me thanks or in my Tank ;Wideyed
Blue claws are tasty though!

 

[Scott Sheeler]

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

I have one in 300gal and he is so fun to watch this dude never stops does laps though everting in the tank

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

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 have red-legs and one blue-leg. Personally I've found the blues to be a bit more mellow but it might be that I've had majority female blues and majority male reds.

Mostly I find the hermits to be a risk to each other. Even though I have provided a substantial shell shopping mall for them, I've had some serious crab on crab aggression. In one case I found one poor guy in his shell with all his legs ripped off, and in another case I managed to catch an incident in progress where the aggressor had pulled the claws off another guy. Hermits can be real jerks! For the record, Crabby-No-Claws is now Crabby-Stubby-Claws and he turned pale blue.

Aside from the danger to each other, I hate that they seem so happy to walk right through the middle of corals. I have a little toadstool that's always closed because some big bumbling hermit took a trip through the middle. That said, they've also saved at least a couple corals by being very good at picking algae from delicate spots.

Crabs definitely have a place in my tank but I don't totally trust them.

 

[legionofdoon]

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!

Me either...I'm lucky I live in south Florida where they occur naturally. We were just at the beach and my daughter's caught me about 30 blue legs, 10+ nerites and 10+ ceriths. My youngest daughter last summer found a juvenile conch unfortunately it was of the queen variety, can't keep those but it's nice seeing them bounce back, my grandparents had their shells lining their driveway (they ate them at least) I hate to think that they were part of the reason why they became scarce and rather blame pollution. We also have the Caribbean big claw hermits too they are great pickers but get big and I don't recommend them if you have any snails never any issues with blue legs. Anecdotally they seem to eat dinos/diatoms off the sand as well.

 

[legendhua]

Hermit crabs are competent algae cleaners.



They are serious scavengers.



Hermit crabs provide reef tanks with fresh food as an added bonus.

 

[Mark Gray]

I have never had a problem with them, they do a decent job of eating left over food, and seem to move dirt around.

 

[guily yalai]

I want to add hermits but finally not, I prefer pepper crab

 

[sawdavis]

I started out with two red-legged hermit crabs in very small shells. Within two weeks, one had eaten the other. But the predatory one is still with me and hasn't eaten any snails and does eat left overs, etc. He switched shells into a very large one I provided for him and hasn't changed shells now for at least three years. He has molted a couple of times and grown very large but continues to crawl back into his old shell, even though I have always provided a variety of shells of different sizes. He is very visible in my tank and I rather like him. So as far as the benefits go, he's interesting to watch and does some clean-up.

 

[Hoodstream]

Honest to god I love my hermits. I picture them all having little minion voices as they traverse the sands and climb the reef. My Halloween honest to god is a blast. He stays stationary for hours at a time then in my head the Indians Jones theme song starts blaring as he rapidly travels around shoving sand in his mouth picking out the bits of food to eat. Finally when his journey has come to an inevitable end he parks himself on top of my Rock Flower and doesn’t move for another 8 hours, repeating it all the next day!

 

[Jeeperz]

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.

I used to get Scarlet's, until they started costing $3+ I used to get them at the same price as Mexican red legs, about .50¢

 

[Jeeperz]

Hermits are fun and that's why I get them. I do not consider them particularly effective cuc members.

As for risk, sometimes they kill each other, more rarely they kill a snail. But the risk is low, and I don't really get some people's rage about this particular behavior. Snails are short-lived anyways and will die regularly in your tank regardless. Some reproduce and reach an equilibrium so you really don't need to buy them. So who cares if something eats one every now and then?

Honestly I don't get why people rave about snails. I do not find snails to be particularly effective cuc either, and are less interesting than hermits. While snails eat a little algae they do not have a significant effect on my need to clean the glass or rocks. Urchins and tangs are far more effective ime.

I have a trochous and astrea that are over 3 years old, FYI. Also had a black berite that was at least 4+ years old that constantly climbed out. One day I didn't notice and was out too long and perished. Definitely not the norm but these are survivors of some horrible tank swings and neglect.

 

[revenant]

I love my hermits.. they're all over and always looking fairly industrious as rock cleaners.. I have a bunch of them all various types.. I feed the crap out of my tank and they have kept a very healthy population for the more than a year since I added my last few..

I think they're not a risk as long as you have lots of empty shells of varying sizes and styles for them to move into and plenty of food sources... my halloween moved into an empty conch shell I had.. only had two empty conch shells in a 100G tank.. It left my three live conches alone. tg!

 

[Always42Learning]

I went with Other, which equals "Haven't a clue" for me as I have no coral. I have only have dwarf blue leg hermits, a few snails, and one peppermint shrimp (hopefully, but haven't seen Mr. Hand in a while).

I like to watch the hermits climb over my lousy rockscape like American Ninja Warriors, deftly clinging, one foothold to the next, and, if they mess up, its a tumble down to the sand. But they always get up and try again. Hours of entertainment for me.

(and there's one who seems to like tossing some of the others off the rocks as well. He might be a jerk, but it's kinda funny.)

JJ

 

[Mhamilton0911]

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

I want to go ahead redeem my 'murder hermits'. I have found and ID'd a Polyclad flatworm that reading says will kill and eat snails. Considering the size of this flatworm, he didn't get that big overnight or from just one snail, so this thing has likely been munching on my snails for awhile. The hermits must have just found empty shells and taken them. I blamed them the whole time. What a terrible human I am.

 

[fishboy1]

I have had a number of hermits.
Scarlet Hermit Crab avoid as they killers.
Blue Legged Hermit Crab very good and peaceful but prone to fight.
Algae Eating hermit Crabs are peaceful.