Zebra Hermits?

[nero]

Has anyone ever had hawaiin zebra hermits? If yes, how are they with reefs? Do they eat each other like blue legged hermits? all of mine ate each other

 

[dalley]

Interesting you should ask!
My G/F had aquired a 40 gal SW setup a few months ago and one of the inhabitants was a Zebra Hermit. This thing would harass any other snails and crabs it could. It had killed a few snails and crabs ... even a small queen conch to get the shell.
She got frustrated, wanted to get rid of it, so I put it in my 5 gal nano. It immediatly went after any other hermit with a larger shell, in one case took over another hermits shell and then changed his mind and went back to his original shell. I guess he cant make up his mind! So, I took out every other hermit/snail of the nano leaving just him. I'll try to post a pic of this little devil tonight.
so ... I guess the bottom line is: if you get one, keep an eye on it, mine is VERY aggresive

 

[ravechild]

I have 2 and all they do is kill snails. In the past 3 months they have killed 10 astrea and 2 turbos. Despite the 150 different shells I have in the tank.

 

[big911dog]

i agree. pretty aggressive. keep an eye on the little buggers...

 

[tizzo]

ooh, ooh, I gotta throw in my $.02. Mine is MEAN too. He jams his claw into other hermits shells so hard that once it got stuck!! The "victim" hermit was a LOT smaller than he was, so I don't know why he picked on it. He is starting to do it a lot more often lately. And he's huge. My blue legs and scarlets are OK in size but this guy seems to keep going and going...

 

[nero]

wow, thanks for all the input. im sooooo glad that i asked before i bought 10 of them! i think i will just stick with scarlets

 

[bot587]

scarlets are the better choice...

 

[007]

This topic has been covered many time in the past and I have given my opinion of them before, and I stand by it that they are by far my favorite hermits.
Try doing a search for them and you'll get lots of good information