Crab or not to Crab, that is the question!

[1stMarineTankDude]

Hello, I'm getting ready to place an invert order online. My son received a Hermit Crab as a hitchhiker in an order he placed a year ago, and when looking at his tank, I've enjoyed the activity and the constant work the crab has done.

I'm looking to add 4 or 5 Hermits to my current reef tank(Red Sea 170) with a fair amount of growth. I plan to stay on the smaller hermit side with blue legged and dwarf reds. They each state they grow to about 1" and .5" respectively. I'm considering a Red Scarlet Crab, which says it will grow to use a shell about 1.5 inches. When placing them, I plan to add 20 empty shells, and 7 medium empty shells.

My question stems around my gladiator conch. I want him to remain safe. That is specifically why I will not purchase a Halloween for example. My Gladiator is a good 2 inches, maybe 2.5 inches long. Hard to tell due to glass magnification.

Will he be safe given the extra shells and the smaller size of the first two breeds, and finally be safe if i get the Red Scarlet?

 

[Doctorgori]

usually they try not to carry anything larger than necessary or available….
if the conch shell is very oversized relative to the crabs then I wouldn’t trip

 

[Uncle99]

No crabs can be trusted.
Couple of posts in last few days showing harmless emerald crab dining on a leather.

I removed mine 6 years ago now and am not losing anything mysteriously.

All of them, even the supposed safe ones.

If you really love them then fine, but sessile inverts and slow fish may become mistakes.

 

[Dragen Fiend]

No matter the variant they are all opportunist eaters. I have a blue legged hermit crab with nassarius, turbos and trochus. Its never messed with them. The bigger the snails the less likely it messes with them. So if you can, try to get larger snails. The 2 turbo snails are slightly smaller or about the same size as the crab and never had any issues. Only time I saw a possible death was the one snail flipped over. The crab was defiantly waiting for its death if I didn't intervene lol.

 

[MoshJosh]

I keep blue leg hermits, emeralds, and pithos. The emeralds are suspect. . . But I think the benefits are worth it.

Anyway, I think blue legs are pretty harmless, at least in my experience.

 

[Stomatopods17]

I keep blue leg hermits, emeralds, and pithos. The emeralds are suspect. . . But I think the benefits are worth it.

I bought emeralds for bubble algea control.

They ate all the zoanthids, ate my mushrooms, didn't touch the bubble.

There was literally nothing else in the tank and the crabs were seen eating them, I meant to let them take care of the algae problem before I restocked another mantis shrimp, but then I had a crab problem and had to buy a mantis shrimp for that.

...ig bubble algae doesn't look too bad.

 

[littlefoxx]

Hello, I'm getting ready to place an invert order online. My son received a Hermit Crab as a hitchhiker in an order he placed a year ago, and when looking at his tank, I've enjoyed the activity and the constant work the crab has done.

I'm looking to add 4 or 5 Hermits to my current reef tank(Red Sea 170) with a fair amount of growth. I plan to stay on the smaller hermit side with blue legged and dwarf reds. They each state they grow to about 1" and .5" respectively. I'm considering a Red Scarlet Crab, which says it will grow to use a shell about 1.5 inches. When placing them, I plan to add 20 empty shells, and 7 medium empty shells.

My question stems around my gladiator conch. I want him to remain safe. That is specifically why I will not purchase a Halloween for example. My Gladiator is a good 2 inches, maybe 2.5 inches long. Hard to tell due to glass magnification.

Will he be safe given the extra shells and the smaller size of the first two breeds, and finally be safe if i get the Red Scarlet?

Yes should be fine. I have two conches with my halloween. He has left them alone with extra shells. The scarlet or other hermits should be fine. I have crabs in all my tanks