Too many hermits?

[~Rookie Wookie~]

I currently have 6 hermits and 2 turbos in my 10G nano, do you guys think it's too much? I see a lot of waste produced by the hermits and it's visually disturbing.

[sammy33]

The "rule of thumb" is somewhere around 1 hermit for every 2-4 gallons (for a nano). I have about 7 in my 15g so 6 in a ten may be 1 or 2 too many.

With snails I would go about 1 per 1-2 gallons.

[Sprayin70]

I have 3 in my 2 gallon, do i need to add shells or is that a different type of hermit? thanks.

[yardboy]

I ended up doing an interesting experiment with my hermits and snails. I thought I had too many (12hermits-10 snails/70gallon)
and the hermits are clumsy to freshly glued frags so I pulled 8 of the hermits and 4 snails out of the main and into the refugium. Within a month the hair had really started taking off. Put all but one of the hermits and snails back, the balance has shifted back, and the hair is disappearing. Cool to watch the dynamics. Later I'll take one out at a time and see if I can strike a balance.

[Sprayin70]

that sounds cool. when i set up my 55 gallon i will do fun things like that.