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Hermit Crabs, Friend or Foe?
Curious what the thoughts are on this as im still novice here and seem to be having a few issues with a blue knuckle, he seems to enjoy knocking my piece of montipora cap around, attatched to rocks, wedged in crevis's, doesnt care, i move it, he kocks it around. I have a hunch but we will see.
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Most will likely tell you that they are a friend- this is accepted as "common knowledge." However, it depends on how you want to keep your system as to weather they are friend or foe. I try to keep mine fairly natural and prefer all of the life that I can get- so they are foe. Yes, they eat some stuff we consider undesirable- but they will eat anything they can pick at including lots of small but beneficial life forms. They do not occur in anywhere near the numbers on a reef that we are told to add them in our systems (if memory serves they average a maximum of 1 per square meter.) It all depends on what you want from your system and how you want to keep it.
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I have kept Hermits in my reef aquarium for the last 3 years. The only problem I have with them is that they will knock frags over, but so do snails. Secure your frags to the rockwork with eg.(epoxy putty) and you won't have this problem. I also keep snails in the system, and occassionally one will die unproven at the claws of a hermit. I think hermits are cool, but I only keep a couple in a 55 gallon and I get rid of them for smaller one's when they get tooo large.
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interesting. its not as swayed as i thought.
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Can we vote for both? I think they have their benefits (in small numbers) for scavenging and eating algae etc. and can also cause problems eating snails or snatching food from LPS etc.
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I won't vote because it's not that cut and dried... As Dolf mentioned, while they are there on the natural reef, they aren't required in a reef tank and certainly not in the numbers that many LFS would have you believe you need. I say if you like them most definitely go ahead and get a few, but don't overdo it. They also vary in reef-safeness between species and even individuals, so do some research ahead of time... I had a little Blue Legged Hermit and found him to be an interesting, benign creature, I'd recommend getting several of those if you have a large tank.
Also, if you have whorled-shelled snails like Nassarius and the like, I would seriously avoid hermits in general since they like to kill snails to take their shells (and eat their bodies). Though for the time I had my hermit, he never touched any of my Stomatella and Colonista snails. That I saw, anyhow. Hope this helps! |
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