Hermit crabs

[zibnata]

Is it all right for hermit crabs to climb on orange tree corals ? I don't know if it is eating the coral or cleaning

 

[jchump5415]

Ummm..probably eating it. I would not suggest keeping any hermit crabs or as some say "reef goats". In my experience they seem to like to bother varies corals. Hope you are not too attached to them

 

[LFS42]

Ditto, Don't look good for the goats.

 

[_range_]

Are you saying that you shouldn't have any hermits in your tank? I've got a 105 reef tank with hundreds of blue legged hermit crabs...

 

[Newts]

The only problem I've had with hermits is they will try to take food from corals when you target feed,like Brain corals, Tubastrea,or Anemonies.I've never witness them to harm any Healthy corals.They are good scavengers for a clean up crew IMO.But I also don't use the old rule of one per gallon,I think thats too many and not like it is in nature.In my 85g I might have 20-30 and in my 180gmaybe 50.Than I use other scavengers like brittle stars to aid in clean up.

 

[Anonymous]

range,

you can have them but they do raise a little hell on your biodiversity. i used to keep one per gallon in my tank with no catastrophic results, but as i neglected to replace them, my tank became more and more populated by pods and worms.

 

[Anonymous]

I love scarlet hermits - I've seen them crawl on corals without nibbling or causing damage.

Blue legs on the other hand - I can't stand them - I've watched them kill snails for sport - there are plenty of shells for them to move into, they just wanted to kill the snail.

But there are people that don't have problems with them. And there are people that don't like scarlets. lol - hope that helps!

When (if) buying scarlet hermits, keep in mind that there is a difference between red legs and scarlets. Scarlets have yellow eye-stalks, reds don't. I have heard that reds can do a bit of damage in reef tanks.

I watched one of my scarlets clean algae off the shell of a snail and left the snail himself alone. Gave him a neat litle mohawk.

 

[Bluetangclan]

I have a bunch in my tank. For the most part I love mine, they are fun to watch. My hermits include 4 Zebras, 1blue legged, 3 crimson, 2 Halloween, and two different unknown ones a white one "Gandalf" and a black one "Sauron". The only one I hve a problem with is guess who? Sauron. I came home yesterday from work and he was attcking one of my expensive Halloweens, big no-go. have since imprisoned him in Mordor ie: the overflow tank. My Halloweens are he hardest workers, clearing whole tracts of rock of nasty colored algae and leaving the polyps completely alone. In my opinion a tank without hermits just isnt complete.