Present thoughts on hermits and urchins

[Anonymous]

I'm wondering what the present thoughts are on scarlet or blue hermit crabs in reef tanks. I've got snails, but I'm wondering about the addition of hermits for some better algae pruning on my live rock. They seem to have fallen out of favor over the past few years.

I had a spiny urchin year ago that got quite large. It would blaze a path over my LR and clean the rock nicely but could knock things over in it's wake. I gave it away when It got to be softball sized. A bit too big in my 70 gallon tank.

Any current suggestions?

 

[Sea Turtle]

I have a bunch of blue hermits and a couple of scarlet's. IMO they are a great addition to the tank. They do a great job cleaning up anything that may have died (e.q. fish, clam, snail. ect.). They seem to keep to themselves playing together and don;t bother any corals. Urchins and turbo snails can be a real pain. They are constantly buldozing my corals. The turbo snails are great at getting up on my egg crate where I keep all my frags and cleaning house. Seems like I have to pick them all up off the bottom of the tank a couple times a week. Then the tuxido urchin picks them up and carries and drops them behind the rocks where I can't reach. :x They do a great job keeping the tank clean though. Specially the glass.

 

[Ben1]

I personally don't like any hermits and go all snails. I like ceriths, astreas, turbos, and if the tank has sand nassarius snails. I think this combo gives snails that will eat left over food, detritus, and algae. I dont like urchins either since IME they seem to knock corals and things down.

 

[Anonymous]

I personally don't like any hermits and go all snails. I like ceriths, astreas, turbos, and if the tank has sand nassarius snails. I think this combo gives snails that will eat left over food, detritus, and algae. I dont like urchins either since IME they seem to knock corals and things down.

What is your rationale for being against hermits? I have snails, but they just hang out on the glass and do little to nothing on my LR.

 

[Ben1]

I feel like they kill my snails for their shells when they need them. I also have seen them pick food out of my lps. On top of that they seem to cause constant annoyance to my sps crawling over them/up them. I have never really had hermits help with cleaning algae to any degree in my tank and they all seem to pick at worms in the sand, or w/e they find in my tank like left over fish food.

 

[Anonymous]

Mexican turbos are absolute beasts when it comes to algae eating.

Hermits are opportunistic feeders, basically if there's something else to eat they will.

 

[Sea Turtle]

I feel like they kill my snails for their shells when they need them. I also have seen them pick food out of my lps. On top of that they seem to cause constant annoyance to my sps crawling over them/up them. I have never really had hermits help with cleaning algae to any degree in my tank and they all seem to pick at worms in the sand, or w/e they find in my tank like left over fish food.

I do like the hermits, but I have to agree with the lps problem. When ever I feed my torch coral with cyclopeze, the darn hermits smell it out in 2 secs. They climb right up the thing and eat the food right out of it. They are ruthless in this nature.

 

[Petsolutions]

For me when I set up a tank I tend to go pretty heavy on snails and lighter on crabs, but I do use them. I usually go with the blue legs. I have had the same experience in the past with hermits killing snails for their shells, so pretty much right from the start I'll throw some different sized empty snail shells into the bottom of the aquarium to help nip that in the bud. I agree with the others that hermits can be aggressive feeders, but I have found them useful in an aquarium.

Someone mentioned turbo snails, I agree with how well they handle algae. I would take it one step further and make a recommendation that if your tank runs pretty warm with halides and such that you should consider the turbos from Mexico. In my experience they tend to hold up better under warmer tank conditions.

 

[Anonymous]

I run my tanks hermit-heavy, I collect them myself and they are abundent and free. I find that they will flatten any surplus food or dead critters overnight and eat a lot of things that will eventually contribute to a DOC buildup, and also do some direct algae control too. I have had a few urchins hitch in on LR, I catch them and put them in the sump where they control any buildup of algae there effectively- IMHO they are too destructive in a display as they knock everything over.. I agree that hermits can cause corals to close with their blundering around. I have little experience with snails so I cant comment.

 

[Sea Turtle]

Woke up yesturday and almost had a heart attack when my small purple monster frag which is holding on by a thread was gone. Looked everywhere for it pulling rocks apart. Turns out the tuxido urchin was holding onto it up at the top of the tank. I would like to send him a couple back yards over with a wiffle bat.

 

[Ben1]

I have had a few urchins hitch in on LR, I catch them and put them in the sump where they control any buildup of algae there effectively- IMHO they are too destructive in a display as they knock everything over

Are you worried they might chomp through power cables in the sump?

 

[Anonymous]

I have had a few urchins hitch in on LR, I catch them and put them in the sump where they control any buildup of algae there effectively- IMHO they are too destructive in a display as they knock everything over

Are you worried they might chomp through power cables in the sump?

:lol: :lol: :lol: In many years of keeping them in the sump (sic), its never been an issue. There is far more owner driven damage to the electrics than anything that some urchins could cause!

 

[Anonymous]

My problem is that urchins eat the coralline as well. As far as Hermits go, I only have one Mexican Red Legged Hermit. In my 125 I have about 6-7 snails:

3 turbos
3 asteas

I think I still have a stomatella or two pop out at night.