Hermit crabs

[1bigstud]

Will different types of hermit crabs fight with each other?? In my reef I have blue legged hermits and white and brown legged ones. This evening I saw a white and brown hermit munching on the remains of a blue leg. Hopefully the blue leg died naturally but does anyone know if different breeds of hermits would fight each other??? I know that sometimes they will over shells but should I be worried?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Hermits will fight. I've had zebra's (which I think are your brown & white legged ones) attack each other & my blues. Now just stick with Neon blues which I bought from OA. Keep plenty of spare shells around & that may help reduce aggression due to competition for homes. Also, if the hermits are the same size, that also helps. Usually my problems started when a big one picked on a little one.

JME

Anthony

[phreezee]

Only keep blue-leg, red-leg, scarlet, and neon-blue hermits. Those zebras kill snails and other hermits. I have 1 zebra that has done this already. He took over the snail shell so I caught him red handed. :)

[1bigstud]

Thanks for the help guys. Damn this sucks I've got quite a few zebras in my tank ARRGGHH!!!.

[rusty]

My snails to have fallen victimto my zebras :evil:

[doch]

I don't know this for a fact, but I've heard it said that scarlets are very unagressive... keep to the mselves fo the most part. I've also heard that Blue legs are quite agressive.

[G1GY]

I don't know this for a fact, but I've heard it said that scarlets are very unagressive... keep to the mselves fo the most part.

This is also what I've noticed in the past.

[adidas]

My Zebras haven't even looked at my snails...

[AJ_77]

hey, nice creepy avatar! :biggrin: got any live fish? :mrgreen:

scarlet reef hermits are the most peaceful - they scrap a little but haven't killed one another at all, or any snails - in over 2 years.

[adidas]

hey, nice creepy avatar! :biggrin: got any live fish? :mrgreen:

lol. yup. that Cardinal was my first fatality, lost 2 of them. I also lost 2 cleaner shrimp. damn Threadfin butterfly :2gunfire:

:mrgreen:

[EmilyB]

My favorites are my hallowe'en hermits - I got them from Sam Wong quite a long time ago. They are NOT reef safe, (talk about chasing other hermits at high speed :eek: ) but have managed to evade a trigger for hmm, more than a year I think isn't it Sam ?

I can only watch them at nite when they come out. They wear huge turbo shells. :smile:

I like the scarlets, I did put into the reef a few small blue legs again, but they just hang out at the top of the acros (waiting to get big enough to kill snails)..so I suspect I will move them out soon.

[BCWolfen]

What exactly does 'Not reef safe' mean. What is it that they eat/destroy?
I plan to have my 90 as my display and a 33 plumbed in as well as a viewable refugium. I'd like to grow some mangroves ontop of teh live rock and let them grow out above the tank. Perhaps it could also house a few Not reef safe critters???

[Samw]

My favorites are my hallowe'en hermits - I got them from Sam Wong quite a long time ago. They are NOT reef safe, (talk about chasing other hermits at high speed :eek: ) but have managed to evade a trigger for hmm, more than a year I think isn't it Sam ?

I can only watch them at nite when they come out. They wear huge turbo shells. :smile:

I like the scarlets, I did put into the reef a few small blue legs again, but they just hang out at the top of the acros (waiting to get big enough to kill snails)..so I suspect I will move them out soon.


Yeah, I guess its been about a year now. But they are Electric Blue hermits aren't they? Halloween ones are the orange w/ stripe ones. Isn't it cruel to put crabs in the same tank as triggers? :biggrin: Hm, I can't remember why I got rid of them now. Was it because they killed a lot of snails or cause they killed other hermits. Oh well, I can't remember. Maybe it was because they kept knocking over my unmounted corals. I haven't seen any in stores for a while now.

[EmilyB]

Sam, oh okay, maybe I'm confused because I got them at the same time and they had similar behavior. The electric blues were exactly like the hallowe'ens. I lost the electrics in a rock tub "aiptasia curing" accident.... :sad: I didn't know they had hitchhiked.

BCW, in this case "not reef safe" generally means they attack something beneficial in a total reef environment, in this case it would be any smaller hermits and snails would be a routine meal :mrgreen:

[rodsboys]

My hermits never bother my snails,however the one remaining zebra I have and my original electric blue put a beating on the rest of the hermit population(2 smaller zebras,3 large scarletts,1 smaller electric blue,bunch of blue leggs,and a emerald crab).The only thing that has calmed them down is the addition of another electric blue that is as big as both of them combined.lol Got him from Lee.He is the sheriff in my tank now.