Large hermit crabs

[shawnlx86]

Why are these hermit crabs not reef safe? Is it because theyre big and agrresive tward small fish or toward corals?
https://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11...ot_parent_id=4
The reason I ask is Im looking to do a 215 agrresive tank with zoo's and maybe some shrooms for color. If they eat corals how well are they at climbing as I have 220lbs of rock that are stacked straight up for the most part.

 

[corbeaner]

Hermit crabs climb really well they probably could make it to the top. I'm not sure though if they will attack the zoos or mushrooms.

 

[autofreak44]

i bet it would make some of your corals into a tasty snack, i would avoid them. typicaly if it says its not reef safe that means its gonna eat some corals or its gonna eat some inverts

 

[craig_08]

I have had one of these before. First of all, it will be able to climb the rock easily. I never had any trouble with them eating corals at all. The reason I eventually got rid of him is that he was taking out my Zebra Turbo snails, eating them and then taking their shell.

 

[chellie4u2]

I have a normal hermit crab that has gotten to be that size and he is a mean mofo... he kills anything his size and takes there shells and steals the food from all the others and kinda holds a claw out blocking everyone while he eats... I'll go take a picture of Herm for ya

 

[knichols0313]

We had one, his shell was a Conch about 4in. He was a good size crab when he was killed. Ours was very aggressive and would eat anything that he could get a hold of. He would eat the goldfish that we fed at that time (we have since switched over to frozen.) He could climb over anything and if it was in his way he would move it. We use to love to watch him move our rocks around our heaviest rock was only maybe 5lbs and he would find a way to move it. He was really bad about going places he couldn't fit and making everything fall. He crawled out of his shell looking for another one and the Triggers got to him. He liked to change shells very often about every 2 weeks.

 

[babyb]

i had one that size as well and my nig trigger got him when he was changeing shells to
i have since got a new one but hes about 2 or 3 inches and is im my 55 reef, he stays pretty much on the bottom of the rock work he keeps the sand bed looking very nice

 

[nolatrav]

I've also had people come in my store and tell me they attack smaller fish as well, I would stick with the smaller hermit crabs.

 

[triggered]

We had a large hermit, he lasted about 3 months with our 3 triggers. We got 150 small hermits, there are about a dozen left.
The large hermit would knock over our rock...DAILY.... you will be able to have shrooms as well as button polyps with your crab. Great entertainment until you come home and find your shrooms upside down because a rock got in its way.

Of course our triggers rearrange the tank on a regular basis and we have to put rocks back every couple of days.

I have heard of people cementing (with the proper adheasive) their rocks together. I haven't tried it, I like interacting, and chiding those little imps every time I have to put the rocks back. The only time get angry is when they mess with the rocks that have the shrooms and polyps on them.
But.........whadya gonna do?

 

[saltfish123]

My lfs told me they are not reef safe because they can topple corals, since they are so big and like to climb