Originally Posted by
sepulatian
http:///forum/post/2629077
Snails that are in good health do not fall off of the rock nor the glass. If they fall then something is wrong. I only have a few hermits. Snails do a much better job than hermits ever could. If you have the choice then don't buy many hermits.
Sep, I disagree with you on this, I've seen perfectly healthy snail (esp. the larger turbo (asteria) snails) simply drop off of a rock for no apparent reason, bounce their way to bottom ~ end up right side up and happily ooze of into the tank. I've also seen them land upside down, and if not turned over, eventually you are going to see a pile of hermits on top of them, eating the snail. I also agree with the others, I've seen hermits deliberately turn a snail over and eat it ~ sometimes they take the shell, sometimes they don't. IMO, the big blue-legged hermits are the worst. tiny blue legs (which eventually get big), and red-legs are not as bad (didn't say they won't, just said their not as bad). Be careful with the red-legs, get mexican red-legs not scarlets. Scarlets are territorial and will kill each other in order to establish/maintain their territory. IMO, both snails and hermits are beneficial in their own way to maintaining the tank ~ after all, they both occur together on reefs in nature. However as some others have stated, if you are going to carry a large or semilarge population of both, you have to accept that they are going to follow their nature and you will have to keep replacing both snails and hermits (I personally add snails and hermits as needed every six months ~ consider it part of the maintance of my tank). JMO
) in between their grazing work. I also like the way they cleanup excess food on the sand bed-I try not to overfeed but just don't worry about it anymore with those guys around! The crab I really like is my Sally Lightfoot-it's always moving around and really seems to be working the algae on the rocks and in between my zoos.
