Hermits or No Hermits?

[kevin34]

How many people here have hermits as part of their cleanup crew. If so how many is a good number to have? Have you had any problems with them with snails or corals? If you dont have them why not? Do you have extra snails instead of hermits?

 

[alf1096]

I just got into the hobby and dont have any corals yet but I have a 65 gal with 25 hermits in it...no problems yet

 

[matt b]

Originally Posted by Kevin34
http:///forum/post/2525417
How many people here have hermits as part of their cleanup crew. If so how many is a good number to have? Have you had any problems with them with snails or corals? If you dont have them why not? Do you have extra snails instead of hermits?
I have always had hermits. As long as you stay away from the blue ones you should be ok.

 

[jtrzerocool]

i have hermits in my DT with snails...i have seen 2 hermits gang up against a snail before and kill it...they did it for the shell...just make sure that yoy have shalls of all sizes in the tank and you shouldnt have a problem...

 

[grabbitt]

I have about 12 blue legged and 4 scarlett reef hermits in my 30 gal along with about 15 nassarius and 5 mexican turbo snails. I like the hermits because they keep things clean and eat whatever the fish don't get as it sinks to the bottom. They can be annoying sometimes in the sandbed because they tend to flip frags, but as long as you keep your corals secure, it should be fine. The only other problem I have is with the mexican turbos. They like to crawl on the float valve to my automatic top-off system, which in turn weighs it down, causing my tank to overflow

.
But as for hermits, I say

 

[hillius31]

I have 5 little ones. I have no corals though. I did buy a large hermit his shell is a little bigger then a 50 cent piece. I have him in my qt tank now, cause every time my chocolate chip starfish would crawl around the sand the hermit would get on top of the starfish and start picking at it and taking good size chunks out of him.

But the little ones I like.
Justin

 

[jmick]

I've found that scarlet hermit crabs and blue knuckle hermits are fairly easy going compared to some of the others. I probably have 15-20 in my 120. Having plenty of empty shells in you tank should help out when they are ready to switch shells.

 

[wangotango]

I have both hermits and snails in my DT. Hermits are fine with corals, but just about everyone of them is wearing a snail shell.
IMO snails do a much better job cleaning up, so I would add more snails than hermits. Extra shells will help too.
The packages on here are pretty good as a baseline.
-Justin

 

[kevin34]

I was thinking of getting 50 blueleg hermits, 30 nass snails. and 30 turbo snails but now I am thinking of getting less hermits and more snails. Any suggestions? What about 20 bluelegs, 30 nass, 30 turbo, and 10 cerith?

 

[kevin34]

bump

 

[clownfish11]

what size is ur tank?

 

[scopus tang]

Originally Posted by Kevin34
http:///forum/post/2525586
I was thinking of getting 50 blueleg hermits, 30 nass snails. and 30 turbo snails but now I am thinking of getting less hermits and more snails. Any suggestions? What about 20 bluelegs, 30 nass, 30 turbo, and 10 cerith?
Why bluelegs? the redlegs are better cleaners and less aggressive IME.

 

[kevin34]

I have a 125. I picked the bluelegs because they are half the price of the scarlets.

 

[sly]

I have found that snails work better for me than do hermits. Eventually the hermits just seem to eat the snails and so I have to get more snails. I have probably hundreds of empty shells for them but they still seem to like escargot...
Snails seem to clean the rocks much better.

 

[marka1620]

I have a bunch of blues and scarlets and they don't touch my corals.

 

[scopus tang]

Originally Posted by Kevin34
http:///forum/post/2528685
I have a 125. I picked the bluelegs because they are half the price of the scarlets.
They also kill your snails faster, so which is cheaper? buying more snails all the time, or starting out with the redlegs (not the scarlets ~ they're territorial, and if you put too many in a tank, they'll kill each other off)? Just curious

? And while the snails do consume more of some things than the hermits, the hermits will eat left over food and fish debris that the snails won't touch (as well as the occassional dead fish or coral). JMO.

 

[kevin34]

I have never seen red leg hermits for sale anywhere. Only scarlets.

 

[scopus tang]

Originally Posted by Kevin34
http:///forum/post/2528858
I have never seen red leg hermits for sale anywhere. Only scarlets.
Do some more looking, they're out there ~ some people sell redlegs as scarlets, but they're not the same. I know at least one site that sells them, but can't give you a link.
google geothermal reef tanks.

 

[kas2247]

I vote no on the hermits if you ever want to keep snails. I can't count how many snails I've bought that have been eaten within weeks. All I have left is a few bluelegs. Every one of my hermits is now wearing a snail shell that is smaller than the hermit shell it originally came in, but they still kill the snails... i think it's just for fun now. There are literally 50 empty shells in my tank. They are just plain evil. They kill each other sometimes too. I'm down to about 8 and waiting for the rest of them to die off so I can go back to snails.
On the flip side, if you don't want snails, hermits can be pretty cool to watch sometimes. But you'll likely just be watching them eat your snails if you get both.

 

[kevin34]

Thanks for all the advice everyone. I still want to get some hermits but deffinately not 50 of them. Maybe 10 along with 60-80 snails. Can you have too many snails?