Quote:
Originally Posted by naesco
Why so down of hermits
1. They killl snails.
2. They are predators. They spend all day searching for tiny invertebrates
that breed in your tank and provide your coral with natural food.
3. They irritate some LPS causing them to remain fully retracted and recede.
4. Many reefers have observed some of them have a taste for some corals.
The idea of a reef eco system with a sandbed and live rock is to maintain a high level of critters in our tank that feed our fish and coral . Hermit crabs decimate them.
One or two are not going to do much harm but the "marketing concept" that you need a CUC (clean up crew) composed of so many snails and hermits is simply marketing and nothing else IMO,
Too many hermits cause the stated problems
Too many snails simply die of starvation and pollute the tank.
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I am totally agreed with naesco. I am a newbie to SW too. I started my 10g with 3 hermits and they changed to bigger shells a couple of times already. With bigger shell, they are indeed a fleet of bulldozers knocking things down.
I have to set up a 3g tank just to accomodate them now. Yes, they are fun to watch but sooner or later you have to put them away.