Feeding hermit crabs?

[rottloverr]

Good evening,

I hope everyone is having a good week so far. Statement/quick question: I know hermit crabs eat snails (rude) for their shells. Is there anything I can feed so it will cut down that murderous behavior?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Sean
Woodbridge, Va

 

[slingfox]

Put in empty shells every so often can help reduce the snail predation pressure. Some hermits however just like going on murder sprees since that is in their nature. Safest bets are the smaller hermits such as the blue legs.

 

[Justfebreezeit]

Yea they eat just about anything.

 

[commod0re]

I feed mine rod’s food sometimes and they really like it
they also sometimes pick up leftovers from feeding the fish which is a variety of stuff including the rod’s food, mysis shrimp, spirulina brine shrimp, live brine shrimp, flakes, etc

 

[ScottJ]

Add empty shells of various sizes for them. That way they won't be as likely to murder snails.

 

[commod0re]

Also different kinds of hermits prefer different shapes of shells so try to figure out what shape(s) yours like and provide that

Halloweens exclusively inhabit cone shells, scarlets seem to like ceriths and trumpet type shells a lot in my tank at least, but will also choose a few other shapes

I haven’t tried other types yet personally

 

[rottloverr]

When this murderous behavior first started I put in empty shells of different sizes but it continues to happen. recently when the culprit is seen in the act I remove him and put him in the refug or 30g frag tank. I already feed heavy so I thought there would already be left over mysis shrimp for them. I know that part of the CUC is to replace snails.

Thanks for all the comments.

 

[Justfebreezeit]

Yes agreed. I try to stick to the dwarf blue legs. They seem to be less inclined to do so.

 

[commod0re]

What kind of hermits do you have? In my tank the halloween hermit never harms anyone because I don’t have any conchs. My scarlets will occasionally grab a snail and look at it but I’ve never witnessed a murder, just clean-ups of snails that died from other causes, and overall they seem quite docile

I’ve heard the red and blue legs can be a little more ready to throw down but I have no personal experience keeping them so far

 

[commod0re]

I would say that I rarely see mine react to my broadcast feedings so if you think it could be hunger related maybe try target feeding them a couple times a week and see if the behavior changes

 

[rottloverr]

I think I mostly bought blue legged because I read they are less likely to misbehave. I guess I'll just have to continue to replace them (which I don't mind doing)

 

[commod0re]

What kinds of snails are they going after?

 

[rottloverr]

I cant really tell from the shells, there are all kinds of empty shells in the tanks. I bought mostly Trochus for the tank but I'm sure there are some Cerith and Astraea. I tried to buy snails that could flip themselves over. It's a bare bottom tank so no Nassarius.

​

 

[commod0re]

well that didn’t really give me any ideas aside from try target feeding them a bit and see if it helps otherwise you’ll probably just need to keep adding snails periodically

 

[overhead]

My blue leg hermits mostly just fight each other. I have plenty of extra shells in the tank, does not seem to matter. Find a way to have a nice layer of chrysophytes and they will have plenty to eat......kidding, don't do that. It is ugly. I am dealing with that and part of the dealing was adding 10 more blue legs to a 32 gallon tank. Now that most of the chrysophytes are gone I have a feeling my tank is going to turn into a blue legged hermit crab thunderdome. I assume they will work it out. I have no smaller snails in that tank, only a large turbo snail.

 

[rottloverr]

Ill just keep banning the offenders and restock every other month or so. Any recomendation for online CUC vendors?

 

[Nick Steele]

They just need bigger shells. Honestly blue legs should kill many snails unless the snail is unhealthy already. I constantly see my trochus snails fighting off blue legs by twisting themselves.

While I don’t do it for murderus behavior I do on occasion feed my hermits an algae wafer when I feed my corals so they don’t do after them.

 

[StartingATank]

Ill just keep banning the offenders and restock every other month or so. Any recomendation for online CUC vendors?

Reef cleaners has a great stock of CUC, along with some exotic choices too, which I think are pretty cool

 

[commod0re]

Hikari Crab Cuisine is another good option for feeding them

 

[rottloverr]

Thank you for all the ideas!