Worth Removing the little devils?

[Nigel35]

Got 20+ hermit crabs in my system and just about every time I add snails they are all dead within a week. I know they are omnivorous and will eat algae as well as other things. Is it worth taking them all out and just having snails instead of hermits?

 

[Rjukan]

Which ones did you get? What color are their legs?

 

[Nigel35]

scarlet red

 

[vetteguy53081]

yeah. . .Place hermit in sump and snails in display tank

 

[schuby]

if you are treating your tank with something like Vibrant, then there may not be enough food for the snails. They may be starving to death and the crabs may just be doing their job of cleaning up.

 

[Nigel35]

not adding vibrant and plenty of algae to consume. Literally the second they hit the sand bed the crabs are at them in a moment.

 

[Markhoh3]

I only keep Emerald ant Pitho crabs. Don’t both my snails.

 

[ichthyogeek]

Sounds like your hermit crabs are starving if they're going after the snails that hard. Or that they need more snail shells for shedding purposes.

Might be worth taking a look at this thread:

Choosing Cleanup Crew Critters.

Choosing Cleanup Crew Critters. Cleanup Crew. Tank Janitors. Tank Cleaners. Functionally, it means the same thing to every hobbyist…. inverts added to your tank to keep it nice and sparkly. It’s a necessity (Well, not an absolute necessity) Everyone has one. But, if you ask those people what...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[ikeasuperfan]

How big is your system? If you have too large of a cleanup crew the hermits will starve and go after snails/small inverts.

 

[jda]

Scarlet red hermits are not great algae eaters. Blue legs are better, but IMO, no hermits are really good algae eaters. Also, keep your old snail shells in the tank, especially if they are larger than what the hermits are in now - I toss mine behind the rocks.

Feed them and they won't eat the snails. You would eat snails if you were left to just eat poo and detritus too. Mine seem happy to eat leftover flake food and mysis that the fish miss.

 

[Timfish]

I'll pick hermits over snails every day of the week.

 

[Roachbeef19]

Snails definitely eat algae better than hermits. My guess is your hermits are looking for bigger shells to take over