Hermit crabs vs. the snails

[shallow_one]

I am having a hard time keeping snails alive in my tank. I have about 10-15 blue legged hermits and they are killing all my snails. I bought some of the really large snails from my lfs and they were dead within 3 days. What can I do to keep my snails alive? Should I be adding food for the snails to eat?

 

[tjkohler]

If there is no algea for the snails to eat, you can give them dried seaweed. But my real suggestion is to get rid of the damned crabs. I have two scarlet crabs and I'll keep them at that level. Get nassariaus snails to do the same job on the sand bed. Then just have a few scarlet hermit crabs (still dangerous, but not nearly as much as blue legs are).

 

[bang guy]

Originally posted by Shallow_one
...and they were dead within 3 days. What can I do to keep my snails alive? Should I be adding food for the snails to eat?
I fully believe that your hermits are capable of killing all your snails. I just want to ask how you acclimated your snails. Normally the larger the snail the longer the acclimation period.
Most (not all) of the grazing snails in the hobby can only eat diatoms.