Hermit crab problems.

[Jdumaw]

I feel very stupid for listening to the advice from my LFS, they said the dwarf zebra hermit crab would be completely docile and great addition to my reef tank. I’ve had nothing but problems with them since I’ve had them. One has been very aggressive and constantly going after my other crabs and trying to reach in their shells after flipping them over. They’ve all started going after my gsp and soft corals (I always end up intervening and moving them). I feed them twice daily and let them scavenge but they’ve been going after all my snails and coral in the tank. Has anyone had any problems with hermit crabs in their reef tanks?

 

[KrisReef]

Problem crabs spend their lives in my sump prison if I keep them.

 

[Gatorpa]

Problem crabs spend their lives in my sump prison if I keep them.

100%

 

[Glenner’sreef]

Hermit crabs should be fine. Often times there is food waiting for them in and around corals like gsp. You haven’t actually seen them rip a polyp from the gsp base have you. Also soft corals usually aren’t on their diet. Good luck.

 

[Gatorpa]

I feel very stupid for listening to the advice from my LFS, they said the dwarf zebra hermit crab would be completely docile and great addition to my reef tank. I’ve had nothing but problems with them since I’ve had them. One has been very aggressive and constantly going after my other crabs and trying to reach in their shells after flipping them over. They’ve all started going after my gsp and soft corals (I always end up intervening and moving them). I feed them twice daily and let them scavenge but they’ve been going after all my snails and coral in the tank. Has anyone had any problems with hermit crabs in their reef tanks?

Not really familiar with them specifically but all hermits do this to a degree. Scarlets can be more aggressive as well.

 

[jabberwock]

Just say NO to hermit crabs.

 

[Jdumaw]

Could this be breeding behavior? The one hermit crab has been going after a certain hermit and flipping it over and reaching in the shell and then stopping after a while.

 

[Bucs20fan]

I have over 20 hermits in my tank, the kill each other on occasion and murder nassarius for new shells. CUC replacement is part of reef life so i accept that. I have Blue legs, red legs, scarlets and a few zebra hermits. Most of the ones I have now, do exactly what I pay them to do, eat algae and detritus. If they pick at my corals they become puffer/trigger food in the tank next door. I find this to be a good system with a severe penalty for treason.

 

[surlytx]

Could be the are trying to aquire new shells? Keeping spare shells in the tank worked for me.

 

[doubleshot00]

Just say NO to hermit crabs.

This. They suck and i had LIMITED experience with them. Its all been short and bad.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Could be the are trying to aquire new shells? Keeping spare shells in the tank worked for me.

Spare shells work sometimes, other times they want different sizes, I have dozens of extra shells, I assume this has helped to a degree, but hermits will always kill each other, or snails for shells. I have found this to be basically always true to an extent.

 

[Casket_Case]

I prefer hemit crabs over snails. I just keep a wide array of extra shells on hand and rotate them out in the tank. (You can buy a big box of small shells from Hobby Lobby or Michael's for a few dollars, just rinse well with saltwater and try not to get polished shells.) and sometimes I feed them and we have no problems at all. I have a White Legged, Scarlet Reef, and two zebras. The White Legged is bigger than the zebras so I think he keeps them in check.

 

[Bucs20fan]

My hermits do a great job at cleaning, Most people say otherwise. My only other champ of the CUC is my huge astrea snails. They put my turbos to shame. Other than that If I had to choose a very streamlined CUC, it would be astrea snails for algae, Nassarius for sandbed , and hermits.

 

[rmorris_14]

This is my murder hermit. He has killed 9 of his comrades, despite being well feed with a PLETHORA of shells to choose from. He now lives out his days in solitary confinement.
I also have a scarlet and two other hermits in my biocube that live peacefully together. I don’t think there is much rhyme or reason to which hermits decide to be cold blooded murders and which stay friendly.

 

[BanjoBandito]

ALL CRABS ARE BAD.

 

[ying yang]

Yeah got 3 naughty hermits that just so bad had to go in sump jail lol.
One of the hermits was constantly trying to kill a conch snail where conch would literally jump 6 inch in the air trying to escape him but often had to intervene lol and no way the hermit could of worn the conch shell so maybe just knew lots of juicy snail inside the shell
Always had lots of empty shells off various sizes and now a complete grave yard off shells where snails been murdered or didn't make acliminasation or other hermits shells.
I see it just as part off it but if a certain hermit a total jerk he goes in sump jail or would go back to lfs if didnt have a sump

 

[ying yang]

Do hermit crabs kill snails just for their shells?

I have a couple of large Turbo snails in my tank. This morning I woke up, and saw that a hermit crab in my tank had killed and taken my largest Turbo snail's shell. I've honestly never seen this happen before. I give them big shells but I guess this crab really wanted this snail's shell.

www.reef2reef.com

Post 6 in this thread takes you to another conch jumping away from something and mine is post 40 where 2 occasions managed to video a conch jumping away from a larger hermit where first seen hermit wrestling it and had to intervene lol

 

[Karen00]

I've had blue and red leg hermits but they were so tiny I think my pistol got them so they weren't around long enough to cause trouble. Now I have just one larger blue leg hermit and a bunch of snails and he's been fine with them. I have a ton of shells in the tank that are the same size and bigger than his current shell and he's upgraded a couple times. He's also been on my coral but I think he was just eating detritus because the corals were untouched when he finally moved on. I actually saw him eating algae off the rocks so he's been worth the $2 I paid for him. Haha That's the situation now... Who knows what tomorrow will bring.

 

[sphinx15]

I've had all kinds of problems with zebras. I got a cleaner pack a long time ago that had a bunch of them mixed in. Needless to say they all found their way to the sump.

I've had better luck with blue-legged. They seem to stay smaller and haven't caused too much trouble. Every now and then they get a nerite but haven't touched any corals.

 

[Cali Reef Life]

My Hermits are model citizens that just like to clean occasionally a coral will close for short time but they are not attacking the coral just picking algae at base. Just depends on individual. They also are great if anything dies in a hard to reach place.