Hermits In Your Reef?

[ChrisRD]

I was wondering how many folks on the board are using hermits in their reef nowadays?

I'd also be interested in hearing why or why not if you care to comment...

 

[Anonymous]

I used to have a few but they liked killing my snails too much.

 

[Anonymous]

Very interseting that you ask this question. I used to like hermits quite a bit, but then they started killing each other, snails, etc... I now consider them to be a nuisance. I've only got a couple and that's becasue they entertain my LN hawkfish and GS maroon clowns. If they can live and prosper in my tank so be it. However I will not purchase any more of them.

 

[Anonymous]

I like scarlet crabs. I find that the blue legs kill snails and the red legs (the legs are really brown) seam to mess with the corals too much. The scarlets are good cleaners and don't seem to bother a think. I have 7 or 8 in my 75.

Louey

 

[Expos Forever]

IMO hermits get a bad rep. I have found that my blue legs will scavenge dead snail shells but I have yet to personally see any "murders". In sand fauna though is another story...

 

[das75]

Have 6 BL in a 75g, along with astreas, bumblebees, cerith and nassarius snails. Hard to get a count on the snails but appear all around and don't see the hermits in their shells.

 

[reefland]

Haven't had hermits for about 2 years now. Just haven't had a need for them.

 

[ReefMon]

I have one in my 180. :roll:

My daughter likes to play find the hermit, we usually find it messing around with an acro :evil:

 

[Will C1]

i agree with louey. my scarlets are model citizens, but i have seen my blue leggs kill snail. my white knuckeled are fine also but they are big. i had a red but he was eating all my sponges and cleaning the coraline off my rock. so i got rid of him.

 

[ChrisRD]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Anyone else?

 

[Anonymous]

I like 'em, they add a comic touch to the tank and the kids enjoy them too. I have scarlets and blues and haven't seen them mess with anything other than each other.

 

[sammystingray]

Only scarlet reef hermits here......won't touch bluelegs. Ever see a blueleg NOT in an astrea shell? Scarlets and astreas work well for me.

 

[Reefguide]

I swore I would never put hermits in my tank again.... I had quite a few blue legs and red legs... They were constantly killing my snails... Then it happened....

I noticed one day that my xenias were doing horrible and my star tpolyps were also vanishing.... Yup, those little bastards !! I thought there was no way the hermits were muching xenias, polyps maybe... I did watch one hermit for about 5 minutes to make sure he was infact eating the xenias and HE WAS !! I pulled that specific red leg out (by the way the thing was huge) and later found other large hermits eating the star polyps... Removed them all & I swore I'd never add them to my tanks again...

After my Xenias and star polyps eventually died off I added a few more just to gawk at and haven't had a problem since...

I'm sure it probably has something to do with the fact they were HUGE but take it for whats it's worth.... I swore but... oh well, they soo cool to look at

 

[Anonymous]

I have about 10 scarlets in my 180. They are fun to look at and really don't bother anyone. They are, however, next to worthless, IMO.

Chris

 

[hfmann]

I swore I wasn't going to have hermits again, but with a huge algae breakout I gave in. The blue legs got hungry enough (because they weren't eating the algae) that they tore into the snails (who were knocking the algae down pretty good). So....out came all the hermits. Now biding their time in a small tank waiting to go back to the lfs!

I've got a couple of scarlets also in that small tank. Based on what I've read here, I may turn them loose in the reef to see what happens.

On the other hand, I got a herd of "micro hermits" who were advertised as being totally "snail safe". I'm suspicious! Anybody have any experience with these guys?

Hal
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