How many hermits is to many??

I've got about 12 in my 75g that I brought over when I upgraded from my 20L. They have almost entirely consumed my one and only zoa colony (along with my emerald crab) and when I got new snails about 2 weeks ago it only took them 48 hours to kill one and take its shell.

They are good cleaners but sneaky at best. I'm getting rid of mine before I buy any more corals, for sure. Just something to take into consideration...
 
Were you providing extra shells for them?
 
yep there are a few extras lying around...i think i just got a mean group! i saw three ganging up on one smaller one yesterday...and the whole group was in close proximity to a large unoccupied shell. go figure. i cannot wait to get rid of them!!!
 
mandy21 said:
I have 2 hermits in my 75 and that's 2 too many. Once they're gone, I'll keep hermits out. I found one munching on a sexy shrimp today and was very close to giving Humu the trigger a nice crunchy snack.
Click to expand...

We agree on yet another thing lol.
 
Hey all, sup. So I got 5 more nlue legs for a total of 6 and some extra shells. When I got home put them in and acclimated them only to notice that some of the empty shells were not empty. So I now have 9 blue legs. I got 30gal cube by the way.

Do they really eat corals? If they start munchin on my zoas they will find their way back to the LFS. All I've read about them says reef safe. But it seems as though some of you have had some probs so I'll keep my eye on em. Already I've had fighters. The one hermit I had came out of his hole as soon as I put the others in and ran, yes ran over to one and went to war. Before I knew it 4 of em were at it. Looked like a battle royal. lol
 
I dont understand all the hermit crab hate. They are scavengers, just like any other crabs. They eat tissue that is ALREADY dead. Hermits crabs dont attack other inverts unless they need there shell (snails or other hermits) a hermit will NOT munch on a coral for no good reason, no will it attack a live sexy shrimp (it wouldn't be able to take it anyways, hermits are far to slow).

Personally, i think hermits are great. They keep your sand nice and clean, and clean up left over food which certainly helps as well.

I have about 30-35 hermit crabs in my 75g reef, and they do a pretty good job... i think they may be a bit depleted at the moment, i'm probably going to buy some more.. I know a supplier who gets them in the caribbean that sells them to me for:
Blue leg-15 cents
Scarlet reef-i think its like 50 cents.

Anyways, the only other invert that i think can keep the sand as clean as a group of hermits can is possibly a sea cucumber.
 
I have about 5 hermits in my 10g Tank, and theres no problems with them, they leave my shrimp alone and clean up a little bit of the algae.
 
I have about 40 hermits in my 182 gal and not once have I had a problem with them. Not once have I seen them eat my corals. Yes I've seen them amongst my zoa garden but they were merely picking away at bits of algae etc in between the polyps.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom