Snail and hermit crab relocation update!

[rudie]

Ok, quick recap for those who didn’t read the last posts. I live in the Pacific Northwest and my gf and I wondered if it would be viable to take snails and hermits from the ocean to use as our clean up crew for our reef tank.

We did a lot of research on this but couldn’t find any who had done it before so we set up an experiment. We got the snails and crabs, got a quarantine tank to the same parameters as our reef tank and put them in it.

Slowly we started adding them into the reef tank giving the shells a brush with each addition and waiting 3-5 days before adding more

We know have about 9 hermits and 7 snails, all in the reef tank, and everyone is doing fantastic!!!

This CUC would have run us around 160 in store but we paid nothing other then a bit of time

 

[betareef]

Ok, quick recap for those who didn’t read the last posts. I live in the Pacific Northwest and my gf and I wondered if it would be viable to take snails and hermits from the ocean to use as our clean up crew for our reef tank.

We did a lot of research on this but couldn’t find any who had done it before so we set up an experiment. We got the snails and crabs, got a quarantine tank to the same parameters as our reef tank and put them in it.

Slowly we started adding them into the reef tank giving the shells a brush with each addition and waiting 3-5 days before adding more

We know have about 9 hermits and 7 snails, all in the reef tank, and everyone is doing fantastic!!!

This CUC would have run us around 160 in store but we paid nothing other then a bit of time

I do this all the time. Added three hermits yesterday in fact.

Just be aware of local rules. Some places have restrictions on things like collecting molluscs (due to overfishing etc)

 

[rudie]

I do this all the time. Added three hermits yesterday in fact.

Just be aware of local rules. Some places have restrictions on things like collecting molluscs (due to overfishing etc)

Omg you’re the first!!!!

Thanks for chiming in, got a bunch of hate on this on facebooks groups

Ever had any issues?

And yeah u looked up local laws about them. Not worried at all, more was worried about the health of them and my fish/coral but it’s working awesome.!

Great to meet another explorer lol

 

[rudie]

I do this all the time. Added three hermits yesterday in fact.

Just be aware of local rules. Some places have restrictions on things like collecting molluscs (due to overfishing etc)

Where are you located? West coast as well?

 

[shcrimps]

i’m pretty much as far down and to the left of the map you can get and i use local stuff to replenish here and there, have never had issues
just be sure to check local regulations
only time i’ve been stopped they were just curious as to what i was collecting for
especially with tigger pods lol

 

[betareef]

Where are you located? West coast as well?

No East coast - of Australia

 

[betareef]

Thanks for chiming in, got a bunch of hate on this on facebooks groups

Why? That's puzzling, but then I won't use facebook, for many reasons like this.

 

[shcrimps]

No East coast - of Australia

oh yeah ignore my post then
i’m in the u.s. LOL you guys have much cooler stuff down there

 

[rudie]

Why? That's puzzling, but then I won't use facebook, for many reasons like this.

Everything from they’re full of pollution and diseases and will kill your tank to it’s unethical to take creatures from the wild. The latter makes me laugh as I got them from a local beach that sees a lot of tourists and the poor guys get trampled at low tide all the time lol.

 

[rudie]

No East coast - of Australia

Oooo an upside down friend! Love my upside down people lol. Definitely want to visit at some point but yeah you likely have access to much cooler critters then me lol, ours are boring looking buuut… they’re doing the job!

 

[rudie]

i’m pretty much as far down and to the left of the map you can get and i use local stuff to replenish here and there, have never had issues
just be sure to check local regulations
only time i’ve been stopped they were just curious as to what i was collecting for
especially with tigger pods lol

Yeah I read up on the regulations and it’s not technically ok but I can’t see me grabbing a handful of hermits and snails that were likely destined to be full food or trampled will cause a fuss lol. I did get some interest by others at the beach wondering what k was up to and everyone thought it was pretty cool lol

 

[betareef]

Everything from they’re full of pollution and diseases and will kill your tank to it’s unethical to take creatures from the wild. The latter makes me laugh as I got them from a local beach that sees a lot of tourists and the poor guys get trampled at low tide all the time lol.

or collected and eaten