Stocking a 25 gal

[Leah]

I would wait to add the shrimp however
And do you have rock in yet? And has it cycled if not you need to let it cycle

[sarzeff]

No rock in it yet, was planning on adding these guys in after it's cycled. Just getting ahead, trying to plan. Keeps me excited and reminds me why I am spending all this money lol.

The crabs and snails and shrimp are just as neat as the fish!

[Leah]

he he, I know how it is

[FishIsGood2]

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.

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.

[sarzeff]

What about the bluelegs though which stay small?

[ponokareefer]

The blue legs hermit crabs will stay small, but if they get hungry enough, will eat snails. They are pretty cool to look at though. I would avoid the scarlett hermits. I have a couple in my 125 gallon tank, and they can be a pain, falling into LPS and damaging them, and killing snails and blue leg hermit crabs.
I would add various snails and shrimp instead. The shrimp I would hold off for a little while, but you could add a few snails right now. Make sure you acclimate them slowly, as others have posted. You could look at a brittle starfish as well after you've had your tank up and running for a little while. They are really neat as well. Just avoid the green ones, as they are fish killers.

[FishIsGood2]

More reading about crabs

http://www.chucksaddiction.com/hitchcrabs.html

[argan]

Astrea snails have been not so great for me, the ones sold as "turbo" snails have died within 3-6 months and/or have been not very effective for clean up.
Nerites have been by far the best, for clean up and living a long time.