hermit crabs still in favor?

[fungia]

do people still use hermit crabs as part of their clean up crew? i cant keep mine alive for more then a year, usually a lot less then that. should i bother replacing them?

 

[Anonymous]

I stopped using any hermit crabs years ago... more trouble than they are worth IMO.

 

[Anonymous]

do people still use hermit crabs as part of their clean up crew? i cant keep mine alive for more then a year, usually a lot less then that. should i bother replacing them?

You are probably not providing shells for them to grow into.
Aside from that, hermit crabs in excess do more harm than good. They clean the rock of too many things, sponges, tunicates, tubeworms, etc. You end up with NOTHING on your life rock. In moderation, they're fine and do little damage. I like them just because I like crabs and like having a variety of creatures in my tank. However in my 150, I only had 4. In my 12 gallon, I have 2 very small ones.

As far as reef janitors go, snails are a much better option.

Cheers
Jim

 

[Anonymous]

I like the scarlet reef hermits - I have had some for going on two years.

Same with the left-handed hermits, but I do not like how big they are getting.

If you feel nervous about it at all, just get snails. I think that hermits have just a bit more personality.

 

[Anonymous]

In the past I have found Hermits to be fun but destrictive to rock & sand diversity. I have none in my reef tank and 2 scarlets in my lagoon.

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah hermits are one of those catch-22 things. SUre they're awesome for uneatten food you feed your fish and clean things off rocks, problem is if they ever get to a point of clean tank they'll eat other things. I'm stilly not sold on how destructive they are, much like any animal it varies from tank to tank greatly.

That being said, I've really not sold on how effective some of the common snails are. I mean ok you see them on glass eatting diatoms/algae but big whoop I have a magnetic scraper that can handle that. You occasionally see them on rocks but I really don't see much of a difference. Now I'm sure there are some for every job, and some are MUCH better than other, but of the standard ones that are available at most LFS (astraeas) not very pleased with them.

But they can die, so you will most likely need to replenish their numbers whether you do snails or hermits.

 

[Anonymous]

But they can die, so you will most likely need to replenish their numbers whether you do snails or hermits.

Many types of snails will reproduce and maintain stable populations. Providing the predators, like Hermits, are kept to a minumum.

 

[Anonymous]

But they can die, so you will most likely need to replenish their numbers whether you do snails or hermits.

Many types of snails will reproduce and maintain stable populations. Providing the predators, like Hermits, are kept to a minumum.

Actually, most will not, due to a protracted planktonic stage. This includes Astreas, Turbos, Margaritas, etc.

 

[Anonymous]

But they can die, so you will most likely need to replenish their numbers whether you do snails or hermits.

Many types of snails will reproduce and maintain stable populations. Providing the predators, like Hermits, are kept to a minumum.

Actually, most will not, due to a protracted planktonic stage. This includes Astreas, Turbos, Margaritas, etc.

But many will reproduce like Stomatella, Strombus maculatus, Limpet, Bubble snails, Nerite, Cerith, Trochus, etc.

 

[sailmike]

I've found that the bristleworms and pods did a thorough job in cleaning the rock and sand in my tank. Only have three Nassarius snails, but they are always in the sand with their siphons sticking out.

Mike

 

[Anonymous]

But they can die, so you will most likely need to replenish their numbers whether you do snails or hermits.

Many types of snails will reproduce and maintain stable populations. Providing the predators, like Hermits, are kept to a minumum.

Actually, most will not, due to a protracted planktonic stage. This includes Astreas, Turbos, Margaritas, etc.

But many will reproduce like Stomatella, Strombus maculatus, Limpet, Bubble snails, Nerite, Cerith, Columbellid, etc.

Ceriths will?
Didn't know that, I think I have a few of those. 8O

 

[Anonymous]

My Ceriths laid eggs on my glass, but my foxface ate them all before they could hatch. I am hoping that they were also laid somewhere in the tank that I couldn't see (and the foxface couldn't get to).

 

[Anonymous]

But they can die, so you will most likely need to replenish their numbers whether you do snails or hermits.

Many types of snails will reproduce and maintain stable populations. Providing the predators, like Hermits, are kept to a minumum.

Actually, most will not, due to a protracted planktonic stage. This includes Astreas, Turbos, Margaritas, etc.

But many will reproduce like Stomatella, Strombus maculatus, Limpet, Bubble snails, Nerite, Cerith, Columbellid, etc.

Ceriths will?
Didn't know that, I think I have a few of those. 8O

They lay the long squiggly lines of eggs that just appear to disintegrate after 7 - 10 days. They have a short non-feeding planktonic period before they drop to the substrate, I think just a day or two. They appear a few weeks later looking very similar to pyramidillidae Snails but not quite as pure white. I think they require fine sand to feed in (detritus & Diatoms) during the few weeks they stay underground but it wouldn't suprise me too much if they could also find a hole in a rock to grow up in.

My edit was to replace Columbellid with Trochus. Strombus maculatus are actually Columbellid I believe.

 

[Anonymous]

yah I put a few ceriths in my coral only tank, and they laid eggs the eggs hatched then a few days later I noticed a bunch of decapods(isopods?) on the glass and figured the snails just fed the pods.

 

[Anonymous]

My stomatella are reproducing like mad. I started with 2 medium sized and within 3 months the population is close to 50-75 I would guess, ranging in size from 1 cm to 1 mm. They are all over at night. I also have 3 blue legs in the tank and 4 in the bubble trap of my skimmer. The big ones get thrown into the skimmer to eat the waste in there and to protect corals and life in the tank. I only have the smallest crabs in the tank, and as they grow will be evicted to the skimmer. Once they are all in there, back to the LFS and trade for smaller ones. The circle of life continues lol.