Are Hermit Crabs Reef Safe

[slk's reef]

I was going to get some blue leg Hermits.I was wondering if they would pick at some on my corals??I have Frog Spawn,leather,3 buble corals,green star polpys.,long tentical anomie,and mush rooms.I am going to get xina and a colt.And i want to know if cleaner shrimp will pick at it?Also will more than one differint kinds of shrimps?I wold thank you for all the help

 

[jacksonpt]

woa there... lot of questions here...
Originally posted by FISH MAN:
<STRONG>I was going to get some blue leg Hermits.I was wondering if they would pick at some on my corals??I have Frog Spawn,leather,3 buble corals,green star polpys.,long tentical anomie,and mush rooms.I am going to get xina and a colt.</STRONG>
Your corals and anemones should be fine... emphasis on should! While many people (including LFS) consider blue-legs to be reef safe, many people on this board have seen them be pretty aggressive at times. I personally have had no problems with mine, but that's just my experience. Hopefully more people will chime in to share their experiences with blue-legs.
<STRONG>And i want to know if cleaner shrimp will pick at it?</STRONG>
Again, you should be fine here... cleaner shrimp are pretty harmless. They can actually be helpful if there are parasites in your tank.
<STRONG>Also will more than one differint kinds of shrimps?</STRONG>
you should be ok with most of the common shrimps except perhaps the coral banded shrimp. They can be very aggressive towards everything in the tank, including larger, predatory fish. I would stay away from the CBS, but other shrimps should be fine.
<STRONG>I wold thank you for all the help </STRONG>
Your welcome

 

[predator]

Well I'v got them all in my tank and have had no problems.My cleaner shrimp are great,my coral banded was a great addition to my reef and my blue legs as well as red legs are great liitle workers.I personally would recommend them as well as some emerald crabs.

 

[von_rahvin]

i have peppermeint shrimp a mated pair of coral banded, 3 skunk cleaners and a host of both scarlet and blue leg hermits. none od the ablove have cused me any problems in my tank. my skunks are great little critters and i will never have a tank without them again! the CB's are fun to watch. my little gobies swim right next to them and they just watch. the peppermints on the other hand are a little bit of a pain. they do try to pick at some things but since i have not yet figureout a way to get them out of the tank with out taking it apart . . . . anyway, skunks and cbs are great. the hermits are great. peppermint . . .well you may be luckier than i

 

[jakob4001]

biodiversity is great to have in reef tanks I think at least; we try to mix as many differnt kinds of inverts as possible as long as it has not been determined that a particular species is dfeinately bad to have; we would never think of removing our peppermint shrimp; LFS has them @ $1 each ONLY, so we try to add more; any luck, that many mate in tank and some spawn ends up being fre renewable live fresh quality food; hey happens in the RWR

 

[xenia]

Watch your Star Polyps. I have had a problem with the larger Hermits peeling them off the rock.
Xenia

 

[fshhub]

cleaners are great shrimp(the safest and coolest, IMO), awesome color and have other benefits, but coral bandeds can be a pain, especially in smaller tanks, they are slightly aggressive(in your size tank, i would not add one, unless that is the only shrimp you want), peppermints are good too tehy eat aiptasia but can nip at other goodies you want(especially if you have no aiptasia), and pistol shrimp rarely(but sometimes) may be a prob for smaller shrimp
and mantis shrimp are a definite NONO, unless he is to be the ONLY THING in your tank(even no fish)
HTH

 

[chevron tang]

hermit crabs are for the most part reef safe though there are some incidences where people have some pretty aggresive ones. I know the first time I got them they ate a part of my colt, but I have tried them again and they have not bothered anything in the tank. Your cleaner shrimp is mainly pretty passive, mostly good for eating external parasites on fish. You can put almost any kind of shrimp together, but I would not recommend putting two banded corals in the same tank unless they come as a pair.
Just a pointer don't put camel shrimp in a reef, they will eat corals.

 

[fshhub]

the scarlet leg hermits are the most reef safe, IMO
and Von_Rahvin, we had a similar problem, we built a mantis trap out of a bottle, and put it next to his hole, and it almost worked(point being, he did try to go in, but got spooked), then my wife actually caught him using 2 nets in the dark, with alot of persistence(she was just too impatient, in this case i guess that was good)LOL
HTH