Hermit Crabs??? Yeah or Neah??

[johnmaloney @ Reef Cleaners]

Your shrimp was probably dying. Stressed and almost dead animals will be scavenged by blue legs and nassarius snails. If your shrimp couldn't flee from hermit crabs, it was dying.

[seatrueblue]

I don't have hermit crabs anymore. When I bought my red grape algae from live aquaria a year or so ago. There was a devils hand coral attached to it. It was my first coral for that tank. It was doing well untill we added a hermit crab. The hermit crab kept sitting next to my DH coral and making it lean over. I would move the hermit crab far away from the coral and a few hours later the dang thing was back again. The hermit eventually killed my free coral. Never again will I have hermit crabs in any of my tanks. The only hermits I had was scarlet hermits.

[ErikH]

I think snails can be as if not more destructive. Hermits tend to knock more objects over for one simple reason, there are more of them. My turbo snails knock over more items now than my hermits do, as their shells are much more obtrusive. Also, my frags are glued down, so the hermits shells cannot knock them down, whereas a snail can easily knock them down if they get caught between a frag and a hard place. LARGE hermits are of course a no-no. I only have two snails and about 70-100 hermits in my system, with anemones, SPS, LPS, and several different specie of shrimp.

If you are not gluing frags down, anything, including flow can kill a coral. Not gluing frags down is really a waste of time because if they are not secure, they will move. I was guilty of this for a long time, now I just glue it all down and I only have to put my hands in the tank once or twice a week, and that's usually not for frags.

When hermits grow, they need larger shells. The fact that they take snail's shells is simply because they need more room to grow, and it is the fault of the owner of the aquarium for not providing these. You can find them online if you want some sweet decorative style shells, or you can simply go to Hobby Lobby and pick some up.

[copperband]

i always have hermit crabs. i use to only have one and it was a blue leg he used to kill other hermit crabs but then i added like 20 and his aggressione went away. so i always keep hermits in my tank they do a great job at keeping the tank clean!!!!!!!!