Blue Leg Killing Machines

[bededog]

My blue legs have pretty much mowed through my algae and unfortunately my snails. One of the problems it seems is that the crabs that I had shipped with the snails as a clean up crew were ready to get out of their current shells. Now I have 4 of the 20 that I ordered crawling around in snail shells. Are these crabs too much, too hungry, too big, or anything else for my reef tank? Just wondering if I should get rid of them (donate to LFS because they won't give me anything for them) or if they will be fine once I start adding corals.
Thanks.

 

[kreach]

Adding empty shells for them to switch into may help some, but blue leg hermits tend to be one of the more aggressive types of small hermits. They will kill other crabs or snails for their shells or for food. We ended up pulling all the blue legs out of our tank because they were constantly depleting our snail population.

 

[fishman830]

not in my case, i have like 50-60 extra shells in there for that reason, and yet thay still have the need.. the urge to kill each other!