All hermits vicious?

[sonny]

I got my Aquarium fish (Jan. 2002) magazine this week, and there is an article in it by Ron Shimek about hermit crabs. He says that ALL hermit crabs are omnivorous, and there should not be any in a reef aquarium. He stopped short of saying that they should not be in any aquarium, but just short! He said that they scavenge along the bottom of the tank and look for stuff to eat. They mostly are looking for meaty foods, including corals and snails, but will eat algae if they can't find that. Did anybody out there read this article, and what do you think?
Sonny

 

[kris walker]

I didn't read the article, but if you are going to be feeding your corals or anemonies fleshy foods, why not have omnivorous scavengers to clean up the remains?
sam

 

[tanggirl123]

i would say if you want hermits don't get any that are big get them small because i have a blue legged hermit in my tank(1.5 inches)(not really reef safe) and last night when i was feeding my open brain (he loves the food i give it)and he was on top of it and when i tried to get him off which was a bad idea he clung to it and it tore some flesh but today it seems to be ok ~kelly~

 

[wally]

Here is a link to a very interesting article about making your own live rock. Notice the pictures of the tanks some are full of great coraline algae and others have almost zero. If you read the article you will see that the only difference is that the tanks with little coraline have hermits and the ones without the hermits are doing MUCH better.

 

[wally]

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaver...ementRock.html
OOPPSSS forgot the lick ;-)

 

[kris walker]

Wally - the article makes the distinction between coralline algae eating hermits (red legged hermits) and non-coralline eating hermits (e.g., scarlet reef hermits). I just wanted to point this out.
sam