View Full Version : red leg or blue leg hermits?
erc111
09/07/2006, 09:00 PM
120g starboard BB tank.
Lots of fish, 5 medium sps and 8 sps frags, 1 leather, 2 brown gorgonians, 2 candycanes, lots of different shrooms and zoas.
I currently have apx. 50 astrea.
They do a good job on the algae.
I also have a 10 in. brittlestar that seems to do a good job on detritus.
I am thinking of adding some hermits.
Which one is the question.
I have read different threads that say that the red is good and the blue is bad. but then i read the opposite.
What do y'all think?
Red, blue or neither?
jmait769
09/07/2006, 09:10 PM
I would recommend the red legs. I have a lot of blue hermits and they are wicked – to each other!! The red hermits do their business and I never see them behaving like the blue ones. The blue ones also harass the snails.
I don’t have enough coral yet but I see them crawling on the ones I do have – no harm that I can tell except maybe to move things around a little. HTH
Jay
nmprisons
09/07/2006, 09:13 PM
both my ret and blue are totally entertaining (and they may actually be helpful) but they sure seem to annoy the heck out of my corals (particularly my xoanthids).
MJAnderson
09/07/2006, 09:16 PM
I have heard the mexican red legs/sea of cortez snails are the most safe, followed by the scarlets..
http://www.reefermadness.us/RMD_Clibanarius_sp.htm
http://www.reefermadness.us/RMD_Paguristes_cadenati.htm
I have had both for 2 months. The Cortez have been perfect citizens. The scarlets will occasionally fight each other for shells, and I have extras laying around the tank. Haven't touched a snail yet...or they haven't successfully touched a snail yet since they aren't wearing any of their shells.
erc111
09/07/2006, 09:20 PM
I have had both in the past and one of them would go after snails, i just don't remember which one.
Is this alzheimer? Or am i just lost?
B33FST3W
09/07/2006, 09:24 PM
I have some blue legs, they kill a lot of the snails i add.
erc111
09/07/2006, 09:25 PM
Hey, thanks miniman,
I haven't seen those. They are pretty cool looking for a hermit.
I think I will try them.
Peter Eichler
09/07/2006, 10:59 PM
I've never had problems with redlegs being destructive towards snails or anything else besides algae. If you ever look at shells for Cortez hermits you'll even see that many of them are pretty beat up shells with holes in them. This is pure speculation but that tells me that odds are the hermit most likely didn't kill the snail in order to takeover that shell.
On the otherhand, I've witnessed (usually larger) bluelegs going after perfectly healthy snails. The other perk for the Cortez hermits is they usually are a little larger.
MJAnderson
09/08/2006, 07:36 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8100715#post8100715 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by erc111
Hey, thanks miniman,
I haven't seen those. They are pretty cool looking for a hermit.
I think I will try them.
I'm Dr. Evil! Mini-me is a clone, exactly 1/8th my size...
newtophish
09/08/2006, 08:27 AM
I have about 30 red and about 30 blue and I really do see a difference in there behavior.
The blues do seem to be the most aggressive, but then there's always that rogue red guy. I've got a few blue left over from my mantis tank. I wish I would have brought them back to the store.
gman19
09/08/2006, 08:44 AM
My scarlet reef hermits seem to be the most non-agressive of the lot. The few zebra hermits I have were purchased very small and have grown into some rather large margarita snail shells. Also, some of the blue leg hermits are rather large and agressive.
The Dwarf blue leg hermits and the scarlett reef hermits, IMO, are the way to go. The big ones knock things over and rearrange too much stuff.
USC-fan
09/08/2006, 08:49 AM
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8102619#post8102619 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by newtophish
I have about 30 red and about 30 blue and I really do see a difference in there behavior. Yeah they act the same the for the most part. The blue do get a lot bigger. Hermits won't bother snails unless they don't have extra shells.
I have some blue (http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=L-ELECTRICH&Category_Code=Crabs) red (http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=L-BAHA-HER&Category_Code=Crabs) white/black (http://www.premiumaquatics.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=L-BWHERMIT&Category_Code=Crabs)
My favorite are either the blue and white/black.
Lake75
09/08/2006, 10:45 AM
I have both types and they're all good. I have enough empty shells in my tank and have never seen the hermits proactively attacking my snails (astraea, bumble bee, cerith, and nassarius).
But I did see a couples of times when several hermits were eating up still moving snails. But those were in the early days of my reef-keeping when I didn't have the patience to fully acclimate my snails (majority of the snails would die over a period of several months). So, I believe those snails were already dying and my hermits were simply finshing them up. Since I started to drip-acclimate the snails, I haven't seen any hermit eating snails...
ducati1212
09/08/2006, 10:48 AM
I have 3 small blue legged hermits and 10 snails (5 astrea, 5 cerith) I think my snails could eat my hermits. My hermits would have trouble eating a sand flea right now and I dont have that many empty shells in there. I need to get some. So fat the hermits sit on rocks and eat algea all day and night
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