Oops, I got a crab...

[Conor_K]

So I juat got home from the LFS with what i thought was 10 fresh ceriths only to find out that what I assume is blue legged hermit snuck into the club...

Serves me right for staring at coral while he bagged em up....

So I am in a conundrum, I have had no intent to have crabs in the system, but the wife is now in love...

Two questions:

It’s to late to return the little bugger tonight, is there simple way to keep him alive in the lfs water until I can return him tomorrow?

What am I in for if I keep him? He is the same size as the ceriths. Very small, could sit inside a penny...
Should I stick to my guns or will one lowly crab be harmless enough long term?

Cheers,
C

 

[Retro Reefer]

IMO no proper reef tank would be without lots of hermits and those tiny ones are perfect.. they are too small to hurt anything or knock anything over and they can get into all the little nooks and crannies.

 

[kchristensen8064]

IMO no proper reef tank would be without lots of hermits and those tiny ones are perfect.. they are too small to hurt anything or knock anything over and they can get into all the little nooks and crannies.

+1 on this. Hermits are a great part of the clean up crew as well as fun to watch!

 

[Wrasse-cal]

IMO no proper reef tank would be without lots of hermits and those tiny ones are perfect.. they are too small to hurt anything or knock anything over and they can get into all the little nooks and crannies.

Yeah, but they grow...

I've had two itty bitty hermits, long time model citizens, that grew into not so itty bitty hermits. Once grown, both started to nip a clam mantle and had to go into my sump.

 

[Conor_K]

That’s my fear.
About how long did it take for them to grow into a nuisance?

 

[kchristensen8064]

If it's a blue leg then they don't get big. There are a lot of hermits that are great in our tanks and don't get big. Blue legs, red legs, Scarlets, I've had all of these plus some and they are all great!

 

[Mastiffsrule]

I also have found the red and blue leg guys do a good job of clean up, but I don’t have a clam.

 

[Dom]

You could put it in your refugium (if you have one). Now you can relax and not worry, and your wife gets the cute crab with the blue legs. Everybody's happy.

How often does that happen in a marriage? ;)

 

[Conor_K]

Hahaha. That was my first answer, but she’s a giant nerd and thinks he’ll be lonely.

I’m 99% sure its a blue leg so its in the drip with the rest.

We’ll give him a shot.

 

[norfolkgarden]

We have lots of blue legs.

Their favorite snail to kill and steal shells from are cerith.

We no longer waste time trying to keep cerith snails. :-/

We moved on to trochus and Turbos.

 

[norfolkgarden]

Oh yeah, didn't matter that we bought a bunch of empty cerith shells.
The blue legs prefer that new house smell. :-/

 

[Lingwendil]

Worst case set up a nano for him :)

 

[kchristensen8064]

There you go, an excuse for a second tank. Set up a nano full of hermits! How could the wife argue that, then she could have a whole family of them. Lol [emoji16]

 

[Conor_K]

Haha. C’mon guys, if another tank arrives it’s going to be a frag tank.

I’ll let her keep it and call it even for the $2,000 new custom build i’m about to order to replace my current DT. Seems an even trade...

 

[Lingwendil]

Petco has the dollar per gallon sale currently, grab her a 10 gallon and some cheap equipment, and then you also have a place to grow out smaller livestock. See? Useful :)