Nassarius vs. Hermits

[rgardiner]

In his March FAMA article "The Clean-Up Crew Pt.2" Ron Shimek describesNassariusspp. snails as exceptional scavengers but hermit crabs will kill and eat them and "never to add them to a tank with any hermit crabs in it." Really?

 

[SteveP]

I hate to disagree with Dr. Ron since he's given me tons of great advice in the past, but I've got Scarlet Reef hermits in my tank with Nassarius snails, and I have found no evidence of predation. Right now the hermits are more concerned with fighting each other, and if they are preying on snails it's usually my Turbos! Little bastiges! Once they die (if ever) I doubt I'll ever get more hermits again. It's turbos, ceriths, and nassarius from now on.

Steve
8{I

 

[LiamD]

Likewise. red-legs & blue legs (tho' only about 1 dozen of each in a 200gallon). Never seen signs of predation on Naussarius but a blue leg killed a turbo on at least one occasion and took possession of the shell.
Liam

 

[lawndoctor]

Pretty much the same experience here. I have nassarius and astrea with red legs and blue legs. There are some blue legs wearing astrea shells, but that is the only sign of predation I've seen.

 

[dragon0121]

I had 5 blue legs in my 180g tank. I added 75 nassarius snails!

In less than three months all of the nassarius were gone but 5-10. I yanked the 5 blue legs and those last 5-10 hung around for the next year. Best thing I ever did was yank the hermits! Besides, they aren't even found on the reef!

 

[Anonymous]

I think if you put extra shells in the tank, the hermits will use those and leave the snails alone.

 

[wasabi]

i have nassarius they dont seem to be very long lived to me, 8-9 months in my tanks. i'll stick to all the herbies, snails, hermits, conchs, stars. scarlets and blue legs never die.

 

[Marcosreef]

Nassarius keep my DSB surface very clean and look pretty cool when they come racing out of the sand @ feeding time!!!

 

[judyb]

I have one three blue-leggeds and I used to have 3 red-leggeds and 6 astreas, but one BL is a carnivore . Now I'm down to 3 astreas and the 3 BLs.

I think I'll remove the BLs and give them to the LFS.

 

[Rich-n-poor]

1 left handed, 1 blue legged, 3 scarlets...9 nass, 2 turbos, 6 astrea.

Never lost a nass in 6 months but I have lost 3 torbos. This may be due to predation or may be due to the fact that they cannot right themselves and drown.

I have lost 1 astrea but again dont know why. I wonder when you add 75 smails and end up with 5-10 if its predatation or starvation ?

I see people add massive amount of animals as cleanup crews the provide no food source or reduce their numbers once the tank is clean.

JUST A THOUGHT.
_________________
Nutrition Forum

 

[Anonymous]

I have kept nassarius with hermits, no problem. In fact I have a 7 gallon nano on my desk here at work with a scarlet hermit and 6 or so nassarius. Having said that, hermits are not good for reef tanks in large numbers, and I only have 2 in my 90 gallon at home. They eat EVERYTHING, and as soon as I eliminated most of them I noticed a much larger varitey of life on my rocks.
Jim

 

[pez]

It seems like my Nassarius snails started disappearing after I added some hermits. Or more specifically, the Nassarius shells started popping up without the body....

-Tom

 

[MadMorf]

I can't speak about Nassarius snails, but I CAN say that the microhermits I had were a bunch of thugs...

They decimated my snail population...Nerites, gone...Trocus, gone...Strombus, gone...Limpets, mostly gone, but no babies in awhile...

The only survivors were those who stayed on the glass more than the rocks...

How do I know it was the hermits?
I put a dozen Bumblebees in the tank, by the second day there were 7 empty Bumblebee shells...

I got pissed and removed all the hermits...
All of the remaining 5 Bumblebees are stil l kickin' 2 months later...

No more hermits for me...

 

[esmithiii]

My nassarius are much faster than the hermits. I haven't seen much predation.

Ernie