Crabs: To have or have not

[fishoholic]

I find my blue and red leg hurmit crabs kill off all my snails. Personally I think the snails do a better job of cleaning and if I had it all to do over I would just stick to snails, although I do admit crabs are fun to watch.

[Lance]

Crabs are bad!!! KILL THEM!!! (or banish them to the sump or give to someone with a Mantis shrimp or crab-eating fish.)

[parkinsn]

Originally Posted by Lance

Crabs are bad!!! KILL THEM!!! (or banish them to the sump or give to someone with a Mantis shrimp or crab-eating fish.)

I was waiting for that post

[lastlight]

Having agreed with Lance so many times before I'd like to add that I currently do have a pair of porcelains and I really do think they're a safe addition.

[Lance]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Having agreed with Lance so many times before I'd like to add that I currently do have a pair of porcelains and I really do think they're a safe addition.

Yes Brett, I will give you that. If you want to keep a crab, Porcelains are ok.

[whatcaneyedo]

The only crab I like is the porcelain. At this time I do not have any crabs in my system and its been that way for a few years. Back when I had blue leg hermits (2004?) I caught them picking all of the spines off of my large brittle star. It looked like a serpent star until I removed all of the crabs and the spines grew back. I once tried to add a single electric blue leg hermit to my display. It immediately went after a fighting conch so I had to remove it right away.

I also had a chalice frag go from this to the pic below because of a gorilla crab that was hiding out next to it. Once I removed the crab the chalice recovered to its former state.

[IronRising]

Just a quick note to all those who say crabs kill snails and one another, its mostly because they want new shells! I had that problem and went an bought a handful of empty shells and put them behind my rock so it did not look bad in my display. Solved the problem as far as i can tell.

[Sea Witch]

What about killing fish? Anybody think their crabs killed a fish?

[lee9]

Originally Posted by IronRising

Just a quick note to all those who say crabs kill snails and one another, its mostly because they want new shells! I had that problem and went an bought a handful of empty shells and put them behind my rock so it did not look bad in my display. Solved the problem as far as i can tell.

I gave mine an assortment of shells of different shapes and sizes too... they still seem to like what the snails are wearing better. I like having them in my tank though. My Zebra hermit crabs seem to be the most aggressive with snails and other hermit crabs.