Nassarius snail & hermit questions

[csreed]

Ok, so I've read the threads I can find on these subjects & I sincerely apologize if I'm being repetitive!

I've read that hermits will kill my cerith & Nassarius snails for their shells. I have dwarf blue-leg & a few very large scarlet hermits. I have tons of empty shells in the tank, so I wouldn't think the hermits would need to take over an occupied shell... Is hermit crab aggression a significant problem? Will any of them eat mushroom corals? (I just lost one suddenly & inexplicably, while others are doing well.)

I ordered a CUC from Live Aquaria about a month ago. The snails were TINY, as were the blue leg hermits. I began finding empty shells almost immediately & I think I've lost about 1/2 the hermits, most of the Nassarius & some of the merited, as well as 2 or 3 peppeint shrimp. I inherited a moderate-sized snail with the tank that was supposed to be a Nassarius, but now I'm suspecting it is a whelk. The pics I've found don't seem to help me settle the question.

When my big snail nears one of the little Nassarius, the little guys start to flail, flip over & flee. Is this normal among conspecifics, or is this a hint I have a whelk? The bigger guy (2" at most). Is often buried in the sand but I'll see him out cruising around in the light of day fairly often. Or could he become aggressive if I'm not feeding enough - no fish yet, & I wasn't feeding much because I was still cycling the tank...

 

[Amoo]

Let's back up a second. Are you saying you are cycling the tank and have your cleanup crew already in it? Not trying to cast judgement one way or the other, just trying to get the facts straight here.

 

[trahelyk]

I'd love to hear others' experience with this, as well. I watched my hermits seemingly hunt nassarius for sport until they decimated the population. The tank floor is littered with shells. But this is in an 8 gallon nano, and I'm about to upgrade to a Reefer 350, so I wonder if all that space would make a difference. Meanwhile, the hermits have found new homes at the LFS.

 

[csreed]

I'm probably not using the right terminology - this is a new hobby for me!

I took over the tank from a friend - 200 gal, still populated with live rock & a couple of inverts (the snail in question, an urchin, a brittle star). Moved everything to my house & left it be for a while, figuring there'd be some die-off on the live rock with the move. That was June 6th. Added a CUC about 2 weeks later, when ammonia was zero, nitrates & nitrites about 5 ppm. The original residents are all doing fine & I've had 4 types of coral volunteer on my rock since then, tests for pH, ammonia, nitates/ites all very good.

 

[Amoo]

This is just from my own personal experience and what I have witnessed with my CuC, so your mileage may vary.

My Nassarius never fight or run from each other. One might crawl over top of the other while trying to get somewhere when I've got some food in the tank, but never any hostility between these guys.

All my hermits that were not Scarlet Reef Hermits ended up in the sump due to inappropriate behavior (read as: ripping snails out of shells with empty shells laying 3" away. My tank is well fed so food was not an issue.)

Once I got my hermits out my CuC seemed to self-populate. Basically once I got too many cleaners for my debris some died off to where I am now.

Hope that helps.

I too have tried LiveAquaria a couple of times for CuC but ended up switching to ReefCleaners. Good prices, good service, good sizes. The bulk packages are great for established tanks.

 

[DaveMorris]

I have had snails and hermits with every tank I have ever had and I have never had an issue. Yes once in a while a hermit would be sporting a new shell, but I never had a noticable loss of snails or hermits. I think both are an important part of a clean up crew.