Critters

[Bollox]

Do any of you know a good place i can buy some hermit crabs and snails that are pretty cheap.

If your doing a reef tank hermits crabs are NOT reef safe. I will say this again. They are opertunistic feeders. That means the will eat you snails. Who ever says there hermits are totally safe because they are red with such and such and they absolutly do not eat anything other then algea is a liar. Hermits will eat snails for there shells for food or even boredom( have yet to tell if any snail killer actually killed for this reason,but the jury is still out).Unless you plan on restocking your snail population on a somewhat regular basis then you can get hermits. Snails are so much better for reefs tanks. They do not bother corals. They are by far better then hermits. For everything you claim a hermit can do I can refer you to a snail of some sort that will do the same thing better. Keep a good mixture of snails my last tank had several different kinds. As for cheap you can usually pick up a nice assorment for a resonanble price. Check flying fish exprees, jeefs exotic fish, premium aquatics. Hope that helps

[Bollox]

Thanks for the reply, i'm not too fond of snails just cause i think they look ugly but if they do a good job i can live with that and i would prefer something that is totally reef safe especially for my new seahorse tank i need something to control the algae if you could recommend some good snails i would appreciate it.

[cath]

Hey Bollox!

Ditto what MrMike said!! I bought 3 dozen snails of various kinds and 1 doz hermits for my 29 about a year ago. And guess who works at keeping the glass clean? Hermits?? Nahh..In addition to eating snails (for their shells, which they don't take after all) I've seen hermits fight each other, and it's not a pretty sight.

On line MO is a good way to go for purchases!

[Hermit]

Contrary to popular belief, I like hermits (Scarlet Reef Hermits). I do not keep very many (6 in my 55). Only on rare occassions have I ever seen them attack snails. The only time you see them attack snails is when there is not enough shells in the tank.

The crabs are also much more fun to watch than the snails. I cannot speak on behalf of all the other crabs, but I have had very good luck with the scarlet reef hermits.

Like I said Scarlets also fit into the snail killer catagory. Please advice people correctly stating they only killed snails for shells is only a belief not fact. Without getting overly complicated on theory lets leave it at the so called most docile of hermits crabs has taking out a snail for its shell(an maybe a meal, most predetors will not give that kind of effort unless a meal was included). Now if you factor in what the one snail would have done for you system you would be pretty pissed at it diein. I do not mean to ramble, but I have yet to see a hermit crab may it be scarlet blue leg whatever NOT be a risk to snail population I have seen first hand a small left claw blue leg take out 4 cerith snails, 6 astrea in the matter of one year. One 2 dollar hermit had a 20 dollar dinner on me. If it was my .2 ugly or not they service a great benifit to the reef ecosystem. Scarlet hermits or any hermit even in a small amount they will cost you in the long run. I argued this point once be4 in this forum and have found that many reefs agree from experience not OPINION like some that hermits do NOT belong in reef tanks. If you want a nice mixture or combo look into a few Nassarious,cerith,strombus,astrea,margarita,turbo. IPSF sells a nice kit for 40 reef grazers for 49.99 thats pretty good if you ask me.

[DaveJ]

Try www.paragonsales.com for some snails. Stick to a mix of snails, tiger trochus for algae, nassarius for protein and ceriths (sp). Turbos and Astreas tend to fall over and if you don't right them, they will die. I had a turbo actually contribute to some nitrate problems a few weeks ago. It was pretty bad. Doug here has had the same thing happen, as a few others. If your looking for a cool looking snail, the tiger trochus is nice. Its got striped shells and most of them have coraline of some sort on their shells.

I also have a handful of hermits and have had no problems with them. There are no guarentees, but if you look at snails as a renewable resource losing the occasional one to a snack isn't that bad.

The nassarius are about 1 a pop and the trochus are on special with paragon now for 2 bucks each. My 120 has 24 of each and it keeps it spotless, almost. Figure maybe half that for your tank, or less. Go with fewer and see how they do. Don't want to let them starve.

[Doug1]

While I think its stated rather harshly I do believe hermits are vastly over rated in reef tanks. Scarlets seem to be the least offensive but then Mithrax and sally lightfoots also can raise serious problems in a reef tank. Mikes right crabs are opportunistic feeders and will go after food period. I only have a few hermits left from my original population over 3 yrs ago and I havent gotten more, though I do add snails from time to time.
Hermits in the ratios advocated in reef janitor setups arent found on the wild reef

[Alice]

Hermits are actually intertidal animals if I remember correctly; I don't think they are found in the open reef areas?

[Bollox]

I have noticed that from time to time some of my hermits are laying dead close to their shells i'm assuming some of the bigger ones are going about killing the smaller ones, I don't want to buy creatures that are just going to kill each other or other inhabitants in my tank. From all the replies i've read and from my own experience i'm not going to replace any hermits and i'm just going to stick to an assortment of snails, thanks for all the replies I learn alot from reading posts on this site.

[Hermit]

I would like to change my earlier stated opinion. After I posted last night, I saw something in my tank I had not seen before. One of the large scarlets was eating a margaritta snail. The margarittas are considerably smaller than the crab, so here I have an example of opertunistic eating. Therefore, I must concure with the rest of the posts...hermits are not to be trusted.

On the dead crabs, you may want to wait a day or so. Often, what appears to be a dead crab is just the skin of one of them molting.

Kris

[Bollox]

i'm not a total novice i know a dead hermit when i see one they have the whole piece of crab including the fleshy part that latches on inside the shell. I'm going to go ahead and order some snails online, my lfs sells them for about $3.50 each and i've seen them online for about .99 even with postage they'll still work out cheaper.

[FishDaddy]

IME and IMHO, hermits are quite overrated as reef tank janitors and having any of them in quantity is to the detriment of the other tank inhabitants.
As previosly pointed out, hermit crabs are uncommon on wild reefs and usually are found in tidal zones and lagoons. I have never seen one while snorkeling/diving on reefs, although my diving experience is not as extensive as many other members of the board.
I suspect that one of the reasons for this is the presence of predators on the reef that would find them quite tasty!
The mere fact that they are not common reef inhabitants is not the primary reason they are undesirable in reef tanks. Crabs of all kinds are omnivores and opportunistic feeders. The ones I've had prefer meat to algae and they can cause damage to coral tissues by crawling on them with their pointy feet. I do keep a couple of Scarlet Reef Hermits for variety but would not want more than 2 or 3 in a good sized tank. A varied selection of snails is by far the better choice as detrivores and algae control.
Please read this article by Dr. Shimek: http://www.animalnetwork.com/fish/li...=&RecordNo=166
Dick

[Spanky]

Guys, can I clear something up, OK?

Scarlets are collected on the reef crest only. And true emeralds are found everywhere.

Blues are found next to the shore, usually around bridge abutments (don't ask me why).
Jerel

[hamburglar]

Hold on guys and gals,

Most animals in our tanks eat other animals in out tanks. I hope that this is a known and understood fact. Guess what !! I have a Flame Hawk with 3 shrimp in my tank !!! I havn't seen these shrimp for quite some time. Now, I'm not going to go around saying that Hawk's aren't reef safe.

My scarlet and blue legs make a regular meal out of anything they happen to find. I do leave all of the empty shells I can in my tank to "help" them out a little. But they do snatch up that vertically handicapped snail sitting on his back every once and a while.

But..........they do eat algae that the snails can't get to. And the peppermint shrimp eat the aptasia anemones. And that flame hawk sure looks cute sitt'n there looking at me. (even though we know he is a psychopathic shrimp killer)