Hermits In Your Reef??

[Ike]

Cortez redleg hermits IME are model citizens. I've been using them for years and have never had any reason to believe they're bothered any reef inhabitant. This includes Cerith snails which are the snails they're typically found in. However, if you look closely at their shells you'll see that most of them are in shells that the snail most likely vacated before they got ahold of it.

 

[Paintguru]

I just do Blues. Will usually order one per gallon or so. Usually they are the micro ones, so they really don't have much chance of killing a snail. Scarlets are too expensive for what you get IMO.

 

[Deepwater]

I have both iin my tank for years , aside from bothering a snail everynow and then , theya re excellent for a reef tank. just make sure you have some empty shells for them to switch homes with

 

[Teeka]

I have had blue legged in my tank for a year and a half, never had any problems in there. Then I add some red legged ones, they however have been knocking corals around. They are much bigger then the blue legged. I haven't had any problems with either them killing my snails. What I find funny is when the blue tries to clean the shells of my turbos, the turbos does this twisting movement try to knock the hermit off. The hermit just hangs on cleaning the snail.

 

[gflat65]

My blue legs are cannibals. They eat snaisl, then each other. Watching them rip each other out of shells is kinda gruesome, but I can't tear myself away. I've got some red legs on their way (hopefully).

 

[FateX8]

why dont you just get something super safe for algae control?
SEA HARE!!!!
never had a problem with mine in my prop tank, and he took care of my ENTIRE 6' tank in less than a week and it was COVERED in algae

 

[Pufferpunk]

I've never been able to keep a seahare alive in any of my tanks. Not sure why... I've tried at least a half dozen in 2 years.

 

[Paintguru]

I've never been able to keep a seahare alive in any of my tanks. Not sure why... I've tried at least a half dozen in 2 years.

Same, had one and it died in 2-3 weeks.

 

[Azurel]

I have read they can be a pain to fully acclimate to new parameters, I was thinking of getting one at some point. A LFS near me told me that when they get them the drip acclimate them for 2-3hrs because they are so sensitive.....True? not sure haven't tried them yet....The last time I was there they had 2 that were at least 8'' much to big for my tank....

 

[StingrayKurt]

The only problem ive ever had with my blue legs were them bumpen into my acans and haven them fight and kill each other, dont happen often though. Scarlets are definatly not worth the extra money cuz the one i have is usually stationary in this one cave where he claims his spot and moves maybe couple inches a week.

 

[mbunaman]

The Red Legged Mexican are the only ones I will ever use. The other varities from worst to ok that kill snails are: Blue Legged, Hawaiin Hermits, and Scarlet. I recommend the Red Legged Mexican (a.k.a Baha hermits) for a perfect clean up crew. Never bothered any type of snail or coral I had.

 

[cobraz]

Yep, knock over frags and attack snails for shells...

 

[colinadam]

+1 on the Baha Hermits. AWESOME hermit plus Premium Aquatics usually have them.

 

[J. Montgomery]

I have one large and one medium blue-legged, and a large black and white (Zebra?) hermit. They've all been pretty good citizens. The big blue-legged ate a lot of my scarlet hermit crabs, but he doesn't bother snails. My peppermint shrimp is good at cleaning in between zoas.

 

[JF2381]

I voted no because they would go after my corals when I spot fed mysis. As long as I keep acans shrimps and hermit are not allowed in my reef. I spend too much time spot feeding to have those little @#$%^ pull the food right out of coral's mouth.

 

[kevin]

I voted "Yes". I glue down my frags with epoxy so i have never had a problem and plus they seem to keep the sand bed in better shape then i would expect without them.

 

[gflat65]

I caught my red legs cannibalizing each other a few days ago... Carnage everywhere. There is no civility in the crab world. Monsters, they are.

 

[Reef Goddess]

I've had all types of hermits and even the scarlet with yellow face hermits still attack my snails for their shells. I also feed my tanks plenty, so its not like they're starved. They also like to sit in my zoo colonies and irritate things. So no, I'd rather put a good variety of snails in than hermits. Or just some really smart snails if you're going to mix the two.

Pufferpunk one of my customers had trouble keeping sea hares alive in his tank as well. Turned out he had stray electric current in his tank and didn't realize it. This might be your problem.

I think it depends on which kind of sea hare you're keeping, all of the sea hares [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif](Dolabella auricularia)[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][/FONT] that I keep are very hardy except for the occasional one getting sucked into my tunzes.

When I get new ones I just drop them right into the tank, they don't seem to be at all sensitive to the change in environment/water.

Some people sell certain hares that are more delicate than the ones I keep. For example I bought these 2.5" ones that resemble a smaller version of a large sea hare that occurs in our local waters. I bought a bunch of these guys. I lost a bunch from sensitivity and then the rest wouldn't touch any of the 5 types of algae I tried feeding them. ???
So don't give up, if you get the right ones they will do a great job. Mine are taking care of a bad brown slime algae problem as I speak. ;p

 

[jessp]

i have hermits in my tanks they keep the hair algae in check and eat up any left over food. I also have a couple brittle stars to keep the detritus in check.

 

[familyreefer]

Rev

I have red and blue legs in the 220. I also like the Emerald crabs as well. As for snails I have Mexican turbos, nasarius, and astrias. anything crawling on the rocks knocks things over so I do have to glue things down.