Are all hermit crabs bad?

[chiqui bb]

I've read in other posts that hermit crabs eat snails. I have 10 nassarius snails in my tank and also a sand sifting starfish. I want to add hermits to the cuc but don't want them to eat the other little guys. Is there a "safe" hermit? My LFS tells me to get small hermits and they won't bother anything but their advice is not always the best.

 

[bjohanson1234]

The problem with small hermits is that they grow into bigger hermits.

I had an assortment of hermits and snails. I had the blue leg hermits. I also had lots of shells for them to move into. At feeding time, the nassarius snails would come out at the smell of food and the hermits, instead of eating the food, attacked and ate the snails.

But that is my experience with them.

 

[d2mini]

I always have the small bluelegged hermits and they never seem to get big. I've had scarlet leg hermits and those suckers really get big and like to take over the large turbo snail shells. Having extra shells for them to move into can help keep the snail murder rate down.

 

[chiqui bb]

The problem with small hermits is that they grow into bigger hermits.

That's exactly what I said to the guy at the LFS. His response was: Well, the snails will grow at about the same rate as the hermits and they won't bother each other. Does he think I'm an idiot?!

What exactly is the advantage to having hermits? If the benefit outweighs the need to replace snails then I will get some but I want to make an informed decision.

 

[chiqui bb]

Dennis: Have you seen the small blue legs eat your snails? When you use terms like "murder rate", it makes me feel bad for my snails. I can't help but get attached to the little guys and then I imagine what it feels like to be attacked and eaten alive.........

 

[bjohanson1234]

The blue leg hermit crabs dont seem to bother turbo snails. Since they are 5 times their size. But nass snails are the perfect size for hermits to eat.

 

[d2mini]

Dennis: Have you seen the small blue legs eat your snails? When you use terms like "murder rate", it makes me feel bad for my snails. I can't help but get attached to the little guys and then I imagine what it feels like to be attacked and eaten alive.........

No, but i've seen my large red hermits end up in "new" shells.
It's tough though, especially when you have a larger tank, to know if a) one of your 100 hermits is in a different shell, and b) if your snail was murdered or died of natural causes.

I still think the little blue ones are generally safe. I've never actually seen any hermit, especially a blue leg, go after a healthy snail.

 

[Bifferwine]

In my experience, none of the hermits are snail-safe. Not the little blue legs or the larger red legs.

 

[dcantucson]

I have NEVER seen one of my blue legged hermits bother or kill a snail in my tanks. I think you should not fear the hermit, .... grasshopper.

 

[yote]

The only problems I ever had with hermits,is they tend to climb into SPS corals sit there.That'll cause the corals not to open.
Other than that,no problems what so ever with em.

 

[reeffreak]

All the hermits are a PITA to me even the dwarf blue legged variety.They don't seem fast enough to catch a nassarius but small slow astreas and cerith seem like prime targets.

....and like Yote said.The ones I use to have would climb all over the goniopora when I fed it.

 

[kwsm]

As with most anything, generalizing hermits into a group of "100% ALL bad" will undoubtedly fail at some point. Just because most hermits will bother snails doesn't mean that the ones you get will. All comes down to a gamble really, I think. So you have to ask yourself a question...

Do you feel lucky?

 

[VAreef]

I've never seen a hermit mess with a snail except when I got my last CUC in 1 snail was DOA they ate him. If the hermits can't find a shell they like (and they must like it) they will kill a snail for its shell. I've always lost more hermits than I did snails.

 

[Rcpilot]

All hermits suck. They steal food from corals. They kill snails. They kill each other. Murdering little bastards - all of 'em!!!

All snails suck too. They knock over corals. They crawl into overflows. They steal food from corals.

I've had, not 1 but 2, emerald crabs turn into murdalizing, meat-eating monsters. I have one on video tape attacking a nessarius snail and taking chunks out of it's foot while the snail tried to make a getaway into the sand. The only reason the snail got away was because as the emerald crab was using it's front claws to dig the poor snail up out of the sand - it stumbled upon an easier meal......... a poor defenseless bristle worm. The emerald ripped it to shreds and gobbled it up. :shock:

Unfortunately, they are all kinda necessary if you want a clean tank thats not overrun with hair algae and cyano.


See my signature - all in fun. :mrgreen:

 

[chiqui bb]

Well, I went ahead and got 6 dwarf blue leg hermits and LFS threw in 2 extra shells. That was about 2 weeks ago. Initially, I saw the hermits quite often, crawling on the rocks. Now I see only 1 hermit and 4 empty shells. Could my emerald crab be the culprit? Geez, and to think I was worried about the hermits eating my snails!!!

 

[motorcyclereefer]

Crabs will fight each other. So he could be the culprit.

 

[dcantucson]

All hermits suck. They steal food from corals. They kill snails. They kill each other. Murdering little bastards - all of 'em!!!

All snails suck too. They knock over corals. They crawl into overflows. They steal food from corals.

I've had, not 1 but 2, emerald crabs turn into murdalizing, meat-eating monsters. I have one on video tape attacking a nessarius snail and taking chunks out of it's foot while the snail tried to make a getaway into the sand. The only reason the snail got away was because as the emerald crab was using it's front claws to dig the poor snail up out of the sand - it stumbled upon an easier meal......... a poor defenseless bristle worm. The emerald ripped it to shreds and gobbled it up. :shock:

Unfortunately, they are all kinda necessary if you want a clean tank thats not overrun with hair algae and cyano.


See my signature - all in fun. :mrgreen:

Gosh Rc, don't hold back! :lol: :mrgreen: