Assorted Hermits or Blue Legged?

[dut]

I need 50 hermits and was curious if the blue legged or the assorted would be safer? I am going to have snails in the tank and heard that the blue legged ones love eating snails. Just curious as to what the experience some of you have had with each. Thanks! :jumping:

 

[fishy?]

:happyfish Blue legs usually eat snails for their shells. I would go with the assort. just because i like a little variety (I get bored looking at a bunch of blue legs.) Zebra crabs are cool!!!

 

[nygel]

i dont agree, i wish i had all blue legs, but i had a scarlet that whiped out my snail population, the trick is basically to get all ur inverts in different sizes, liek i have 2 tiny tiny hitchiker snails, 1 hermit a little bigger, then 2 more snails way bigger..... i just think my scarlet was really aggressive

 

[payton 350]

50 hermits is a lot...what size tank you got.....i think having that many in a smaller tank 110gal or less are gonna be taking out the snails for their shells...i got some blue legs now and they are cool...but i don't think they have much of an affect on algae or anything....i would stick with the snails for that.....i had a scarlet that just sat on a rock all day and nite and never did anything....most boring critter i had in my tank

 

[n2theblue]

How big is your tank? I have a dozen hermits in my 29 gallon and I think that is bordering on too much. They are great as long as their is plenty to eat, but when the algae starts to get scarce they turn into teenagers on spring break. They steal the snails' shells, eat/scrape the coralline off the rocks, and then steal each others shells. This is despite having tons of extra shells in there for them (50+), and supplementing with sheets of seaweed & shrimp/meaty foods when there isn't much algae for them to eat. I have even found little beer bottles under the rocks after some of their wild parties (jk). I was very happy to move the bulk of them to my new 90 gallon this week where hopefully they will have more food and less opportunity to cause trouble. I got all 12 of these guys (mostly red legs but a few blue legs) during the middle of a hair algae outbreak, which they quickly resolved along with a few husbandry changes on my part. My LFS guy (who is right on for a lot of things) insisted that I should have 1 per gallon. I hesitated and just got a dozen thinking I would go back after I killed a few. I'm so glad I didn't get that many hermits cause they would eat absolutely everything in the tank and then each other.
I haven't noticed one variety picking on the snails more than the other, so maybe someone with more experience can add some insight. I am actually contemplating switching to the scarlett hermits 'cause I've been told they are more docile.

 

[dut]

Tank size is 180 gallons. I was going to get 50 snails and 50 hermits. Does this sound good or do you think I should get less? More? I am also going to grab some Emerald crabs and a couple bristle stars.