Crabs vs snails?
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Snails all the way.
Snails eat the algae off the glass and hard to reach areas. Hermits steal food from corals and climb on them, kill snails, knock over frags.
Snails eat the algae off the glass and hard to reach areas. Hermits steal food from corals and climb on them, kill snails, knock over frags.
eatbreakfast
Fish Nerd
Snails knock over way more corals and frags and don't do that great of a job on the glass, so I still have to do it.
Ugly Filipino hermits eat any algae, including bryopsis and derbesia and emeralds are the the best bubble and hair algae eaters.
Crabs all the way.
Ugly Filipino hermits eat any algae, including bryopsis and derbesia and emeralds are the the best bubble and hair algae eaters.
Crabs all the way.
kacrocorals581
Gotta have that acro
only snails in my tank crabs are opportunistic feeders so if normal food runs out off to the corals they go
Snails
Hermits-Crabs are big time scavengers, and when food is scarce, like in our reef tanks, they will eat anything, including other CUC memebers and Corals. Not very great guy to keep, ya never know when they will turn to the dark side.
Hermits-Crabs are big time scavengers, and when food is scarce, like in our reef tanks, they will eat anything, including other CUC memebers and Corals. Not very great guy to keep, ya never know when they will turn to the dark side.
AlphaOmega
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I started with hermit crabs as my CUC but for all the above stated reasons I am now utilizing various snails for mu CUC
Righteous
Well-Known Member
I've had excellent luck with blue leg and scarlet hermit crabs. They don't seem to bother anything, and keep things pretty clean. When I had mostly snails, they never seemed to live that long. I still get emails from reef cleaners to "renew" my clean up crew. I don't like the idea of treating snails as disposable creatures. I've found that if I keep the number of hermits to a minimum, they don't go hungry.
Plus hermits are just so comical!
Plus hermits are just so comical!
L.A.
Community Member
I have both. Hermit crabs are like vultures though, I always know where the problem is in the tank when i see them marching over so.. for that they're useful. I'll never replace them, though. They've killed too many snails and don't do enough in my tank to want to keep them. Snails do far more in my tank than the crabs.
Jizu Puentes
Well-Known Member
Definitely snails. I have tongan nassarius, nerites and tons of stomatellas. The stomatellas readily reproduce and can definitely fit into the small rock crevices where she'll bound snails can't. I had blue leg hermits in the beginning but they loved killing nassarius snails and their spiky feet would irritate my zoas and shroom
Oceansize
Active Member
I'm glad I have both. Of various sizes too: big snails, small snails, big hermits, small hermits. The snails are better at cleaning the glass and sifting the sand bed and removing detritus, but the hermits are better at rapidly cleaning brown diatom dust off my sand and also better at cleaning algae off the rocks. If I get a small diatom bloom, the crabs have it taken care of in a day.
I only have three frags and while the crabs have definitely swung by to scrape whatever algae they can find, they aren't damaging or eating the coral. The snails have done more to knock stuff over than the crabs have.
It is obvious that a few of my tiny snails have been killed for their shells by my growing hermits (I did provide new empty shells for them, but I think the shells are too big). But I'm not too worried about this because I've noticed those same snails are reproducing. I have many super tiny baby snails now, which I wasn't expecting. When you think about it, every single hermit crab in existence at one time needed a snail to die in order for it to live, so it doesn't bother me that my snails occasionally get eaten, it's all part of the balance of the tank. I should say that the snails in question are not of the big variety like a Turbo. If I lost a Turbo to a hermit, then yeah I'd be mad (unless the Turbos were reproducing too).
Also, I'm not finding empty snail shells, I'm finding more snail shells with hermits in them instead of snails. So at least the hermits are only killing a snail as needed for shelter.
I will also add that I'm a little bit of an overfeeder because my nitrates are so ridiculously low that I'm actually a little worried about sterile tank syndrome. I'm using a sulphur denitrator to remove nitrates and it is really working well now that I've got it broken in, but the downside is that now my water may be TOO pure for the coral (I've read that some like at least a lil bit of nitrate). Thus, I overfeed a little and that may be why my hermits are relatively well behaved.
I don't have any experience with emerald crabs, but I've heard on more than one occasion that they will eat your fish after all the bubble algae is gone.
I only have three frags and while the crabs have definitely swung by to scrape whatever algae they can find, they aren't damaging or eating the coral. The snails have done more to knock stuff over than the crabs have.
It is obvious that a few of my tiny snails have been killed for their shells by my growing hermits (I did provide new empty shells for them, but I think the shells are too big). But I'm not too worried about this because I've noticed those same snails are reproducing. I have many super tiny baby snails now, which I wasn't expecting. When you think about it, every single hermit crab in existence at one time needed a snail to die in order for it to live, so it doesn't bother me that my snails occasionally get eaten, it's all part of the balance of the tank. I should say that the snails in question are not of the big variety like a Turbo. If I lost a Turbo to a hermit, then yeah I'd be mad (unless the Turbos were reproducing too).
Also, I'm not finding empty snail shells, I'm finding more snail shells with hermits in them instead of snails. So at least the hermits are only killing a snail as needed for shelter.
I will also add that I'm a little bit of an overfeeder because my nitrates are so ridiculously low that I'm actually a little worried about sterile tank syndrome. I'm using a sulphur denitrator to remove nitrates and it is really working well now that I've got it broken in, but the downside is that now my water may be TOO pure for the coral (I've read that some like at least a lil bit of nitrate). Thus, I overfeed a little and that may be why my hermits are relatively well behaved.
I don't have any experience with emerald crabs, but I've heard on more than one occasion that they will eat your fish after all the bubble algae is gone.
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ritter6788
Coral Fraud Private Eye
Hermits for me too. Far better algae eaters than snails.
Exactly what hermits are these? I've had many hermits and enjoy watching them but never seen them make much of a dent in any algae.
Longnose Hawkfish
Valuable Member
I keep both, but I hate hermits. All they do is go around knocking frags over. My turbo knocks over less stuff than my small blue leg hermits do. Got my new monti half killed during the night.
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+1 Crabs are Worthless
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Huh?
Clearly you have never had Tiger Trochus Snails (The Cadillac of Snails).
They will Devour Hair Algae like No Other.
I had a Heater Covered in Hair Algae I was going to Clean.
I put in Tiger Trochus Snails a few days Prior and they Polished that Heater Clean!
It is like this when comparing the two
Hermit Crabs = Cutting your Lawn with Scissors
Tiger Trochus Snails = Cutting your Lawn with a John Deere Tractor
There is no Comparision.
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