how many is to many

[meisel1]

today I bought five red legged hermit crabs to add to my 100gal fowlr, that brings my total to eleven . The tank is now two weeks old so they are part of my clean up crew. My question is will the crabs eat things that I might otherwise not have eaten or will they find enough food that I won't have to worry about that.

[DVST8R]

people say roughly 1 crab per 10 gal of water

[Avi]

If the tank is fairly new, you should have ample sources of algaes for the hermits to eat. In fact, as the tank matures, there should be ample foods for them, too. You can put in a shrimp pellet or three once in a while for them.

[Ibrakeforreefs]

Do you have snails in your clean-up crew? If so, I dont know how much good the Crabs will do because they would just rather eat the snails.

My friend had THREE hermit crabs in his tank. they killed 20+ snails and handicapped 3 corals.

I am just a newb so please shout at me if I am wrong.

~Ibrakeforreefs~

[Avi]

It's not that you're wrong, it's that what you said isn't always right. If there are empty shells available for the crabs to change into as they grow, there wouldn't be much by way of snail killing.

[xtrstangx]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6813435#post6813435 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Avi
It's not that you're wrong, it's that what you said isn't always right. If there are empty shells available for the crabs to change into as they grow, there wouldn't be much by way of snail killing.

Hey, I'm Ibrakeforreefs's friend.

I had plenty of shells of various sizes scattered about on the bottom. Eventually after my tank was stable, all my my algae disappeared (I have to scrape my glass every 10 days to give you some indication).

They killed ALL but 1 of my Cerith snails and 5 of my Turbo snails.. I had 10 to start off with and they eventually killed each other as well until I had 3. No I do not have copper in my tank... you gotta eat if you gotta eat.

When I was in Chicago one weekend, I came home to an almost dead hammer coral. They had picked at the skeleton until there was almost nothing left. It took atleast a month before the Hammer fully expanded again. They also went after a Devil's Hand, zoanthids, and most likely my Sinularia leather (not 100% on that though).

[Avi]

I can say that I have every one of those corals in my reef. None of the hermits ever touched any of the coral or the any of the four or five different kinds of snails that I have in the reef. And, that's over two years. I have only Scarlets and Bluelegs....xtrstangx, maybe you have some other kinds of hermits?

[MBuck]

[QUOTE]
today I bought five red legged hermit crabs to add to my 100gal fowlr, that brings my total to eleven . The tank is now two weeks old so they are part of my clean up crew. My question is will the crabs eat things that I might otherwise not have eaten or will they find enough food that I won't have to worry about that.


I couldn't help but smile very broadly to your post!!! I'm not sure what kind of nourishment YOU will get out of eating the detrius, leftover food, etc, from your tank.....:D you may want to soak it in some garlic, or other supplement first!!

I am just sitting here thinking about you being your "clean up" crews', clean up crew!! ROFLMOA!!!:lmao:

Have a good night!

[meisel1]

I thought it was quite funny to, unfortunatly I already posted it before i realised what I wrote. If nothing else at least I made you laugh.

[HBtank]

all I know is I had 13 hermits to start, reduced to 4 now, soon to be only one, and he will be on probation.

I will live with him only because he is funniest crab I have ever seen. Last night when I added a bunch of cerith snails and 3 of them landed on his favorite shell that he plays with all the time(that is just a little to big for now), he walked up to them and at first I thought he was gonna get some snail dinner but instead picked them up one by one and tossed them like little frisbees. It was hilarious to watch, especially when he got ahold of the first one, did like 5 wind up practice motions, then let the little guy fly.

I also have started boxing him with my tongs, he has a nasty left jab. :D

[torque66]

I think it varies. I didnt have a problem for the longest time, but recently added a bunch of red and blue legs and a bunch of cerith and astrea snails. Now I have empty shells showing up all the time.....

[Joshthenosh]

clean up crews can be soo funny i have a hermit crab called crazy job cause hes got a big stupid looking shell, and reminds me out of the one from shark tale, and i got a cleaner called jaquce, and he cleans my nails and eats flakes from my hand

[xtrstangx]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6813693#post6813693 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Avi
I can say that I have every one of those corals in my reef. None of the hermits ever touched any of the coral or the any of the four or five different kinds of snails that I have in the reef. And, that's over two years. I have only Scarlets and Bluelegs....xtrstangx, maybe you have some other kinds of hermits?

I had a mixture of Blue legs, red legs/scarlets (never really know what difference there was), and zebra hermits. They are participated in the coral killing.

All crabs are oppertunistic. If they are hungry enough, they will eat anything, be it algae, snails, or coral. Snails will die if there is no food (sad, but it happens in nature as well).

[aquawolf]

Even though I also have hermits in my tank, I have read that there is nothing a hermit can do for you that a snail can't do better. Heck, there are even snails out there that will eat cyano for you.

I have a whole lot more than any 11 scarlet reef hermits in my 90, along with some blue legs and plenty of snails and a huge brittle star. So far everything has been fine, a dead snail every now and then, but I really can't blame the crabs yet. Why? Because their empty shells are still lying on the bottom of the tank, so they may have died of natural causes and the crabs were just doing their job and cleaning it up. ;-)

[xtrstangx]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6822070#post6822070 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by aquawolf
there is nothing a hermit can do for you that a snail can't do better. Heck, there are even snails out there that will eat cyano for you.

Yep, snails are better than hermits.. they can clean just as well. (Hermits can't even clean the glass, so there :p )

[smcnally]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6821979#post6821979 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by xtrstangx
All crabs are oppertunistic. If they are hungry enough, they will eat anything, be it algae, snails, or coral. Snails will die if there is no food (sad, but it happens in nature as well).

Ummm...Do you feed your tank at all? I have all the types of hermits you've mentioned and have had them for awhile now. They have done nothing to my corals. I have about 50 of them in a 125 and have never had an issue. I have seen them on corals, but they are always cleaning it or stealing a piece of shrimp from it.