Snails or hermits, snails or hermits...

[gksipps]

To buy or not to buy, that is the question....
So I now have:
Crab critters: 4 bluelegs, 1 sally
Snail critters: 2 turbos, 10 nassarius, 3 astreas
Misc: 3 brittles, 1 sandsifter, 1 unknown hitchhiker star, 2 shrimps
With our slowly-but-surely 90g reef tank, which cleans the sandbed and LR better, crabs or snails? I have this horrible image in my head of the crabs taking one of the soft corals or the anemones in its giant claw and just snip snip like good old Eddie Scissorhands... I want all of my reef critters to get along, but still have a very clean reef. What do you think - which is better for the non to low-aggressive reef?

 

[wrassecal]

I got rid of all my hermits a long time ago (with the exception of one scarlet hitcher that made it through my cycle somehow). I think blue legs especially are prone to picking at corals such as polyps and coveting my snails for a home. For my clean up crew in my 135 I have 2 conchs, a dozen turbos, 8 or so astrea, stomatellas, nassarius, ceriths, bristle worms, cleaner shrimp and one bad a$$ sally lightfoot that hubby spent most of the night trying to catch. That's just my preference sfor clean-up crew.

 

[nm reef]

I try to keep as much diversity as possible...assorted crabs and snails are the foundation...plus a brittle star...and a healthy micro infauna population(worms/pods/mini brittles...etc). With hermits(I prefer scarlets and blue legs) you will always have some predation problems...but the benefit they provide out weighs any problems...at least in my opinion.

 

[overanalyzer]

I keep blue legs in with my snails - I have added a handful of extra shells for them and I always try to get a few more in there for them. I also feed some shrinking shrimp pellets for my blue legs ..... I have had no predation issues that I have seen!

 

[lopeyc]

I have an equal number of scarlets and blue-legs. they seem to be interested in different things -- the scarlets like the sand, the blues like the rock. The blues are faster and more fun to watch, as they scale my lr pile like little rock climbers.
I have no snails because the guy I got the tank from believed they don't do much and can clog the tubes. True??