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Just wanted to do a quick thread to gauge the following info, please copy the questions and paste along with your answers if you dont mind (will keep it organised). Thankyou in advance to all who reply and keep in mind this applies only to REEF TANKS please. If you have more than one reef, just paste the questions twice and fill out each one.

*How many gallon is your tank?
*What fish do you have?
*What corals make up your tank? (soft/lps/sps/mixed)
*How many hermits do you have?
*What other "clean up crew" do you have?
*Do you think the hermits play a large role in your tank and if so what role is that?
*Have you observed any problems caused by the hermits? If you have, what was the problem?

Any and all replies appreciated, i am having a debate with myself about some changes to my tank and would love to know what everyones answers to the above are.

-DL


Cake > Pie

*How many gallon is your tank? 120
*What fish do you have? Yellow Tang, 2 Ocellaris, 6 line wrasse.
*What corals make up your tank? Mixed
*How many hermits do you have? 6
*What other "clean up crew" do you have? Black cuke, red star, 6 turbo snails
*Do you think the hermits play a large role in your tank and if so what role is that? No
*Have you observed any problems caused by the hermits? If you have, what was the problem? Extremely often they climb corals, irritating them along with other inhabitants like climbing the cuke/clam etc etc. This behaviour annoys me because at this stage the hermits are doing more harm than good and i am thinking of removing all of them and adding another cuke.

-DL

Cake > Pie

*How many gallon is your tank?
100gal

*What fish do you have?
Maroon clownfish, Coral Beauty, Yellow Coris Wrasse, Purple Firefish, Azure Damsel, Orangetail Damsel, Bangaii Cardinalfish..

*What corals make up your tank? (soft/lps/sps/mixed)
Soft and LPS

*How many hermits do you have?
Approximately 25 blue leg hermits, 4 scarlet hermits

*What other "clean up crew" do you have?
Fighting Conch, Emerald Crabs, Astrea and Turbo Snails..

*Do you think the hermits play a large role in your tank and if so what role is that?
I do feel that hermit crabs have been beneficial in keeping the sandbed and rockwork of my tanks clean.. They're constantly at work trying to find a nice little tidbit to munch..

*Have you observed any problems caused by the hermits? If you have, what was the problem?
The only trouble I've ever had with my hermits would be aggression towards my snail population when searching for new shells.. Once a wider selection of empty shells were placed in the tank the aggression was drastically reduced.. I won't say that an occasional snail doesn't still end up getting munched, but the frequency in which it occurs is much lower..

*How many gallon is your tank? 68 gallons

*What fish do you have? 1 pair of percula clowns/green chromis, 1 sixline wrasse, 1 bicolor blenny, 1 citron clown goby, 1 yellow eyed tang.

*What corals make up your tank? (soft/lps/sps/mixed)Soft with exeption of the 2 frogspawn

*How many hermits do you have? 5 hawaii hermits, 2 electric blue hermits, 3 scarlets, 3 others I'm not sure of

*What other "clean up crew" do you have?
2 bristlestars, 5 snails.

*Do you think the hermits play a large role in your tank and if so what role is that? Not as much as the brittle stars.

*Have you observed any problems caused by the hermits? If you have, what was the problem? Only 2. They encroach the blennies territory, and they get prounced by it. They also knock over some of my loose corals, kind of a nuisance.

*How many gallon is your tank?
- 75gal

*What fish do you have?
- Yellow Tang, pair of False Perculas, 6-line wrass, 3 blue-green Chromis, Yellow tail damsel

*What corals make up your tank?
- Anchors, Colts, Sinularia, button polyps

*How many hermits do you have?
- about 35 or so. All blue legged or Hawaian Zebra

*What other "clean up crew" do you have?
- 2 mini-conch snails, 4 nasareth snails, 2 emerald crabs, ~20 turbo/Astria snail (adult) and now I have over 100 babie snails all over the place, it's been a couple of weeks now and they are doing great

*Do you think the hermits play a large role in your tank and if so what role is that?
- yes, general clean up, sand sifting, and PURE entertainment come feeding time.

*Have you observed any problems caused by the hermits?
- not really, some aggression toward one another, they don't seem to bother my tank at all - just each other

Thanks for the replies folks so far but no more are needed. I came to a decision last night and will be pulling all 5 hermits out shortly.

-DL

Cake > Pie

After looking at the pics of your tank, you fall in the same situation that I have. Did you attach your corals to your LR? I didn't attach them any of my corals and they continually knocked over my frogspawn and leather. However, I moved those 2 corals and now the crabs can't mess with them.
My advice to you is to leave your hemits in your system. They're natural environment is what you are trying to create. They do help with algae and extra food lying around. You may be able to find a way to strategically place your corals so they don't disturb them. In a natural reef, I wouldn't imagine hermits (at least ones that don't eat corals) to harm corals. Just my thoughts, I kind of like the little guys too.

Dont get me wrong, i like hermits as much as anyone. Seeing them climb and fall, flip over, sprint for food and hiding to swap a shell... i love all this behaviour

Not one of my corals is fixed down, but being knocked down isnt the problem -the problem is just the hermits moving on or touching them. No coral has shown ill effects from this but i dont like it.

When i really sit down and think about it, the job the hermits do is quite minimal and i believe another cuke will easily replace them. I have not had an algae outbreak in my tank to date so im not fussed there really.

I will see how it goes, maybe post back after a while and see how things are.

Thanks for your thoughts PM,
-DL

Last edited by Dark Lotus at 02-Dec-2004 18:21

Cake > Pie

Matt, I havent replaced hermits for a very long time. Hermits IMO dont do the job that they need to for as much as they tear up. There are other animals that do the job better and are less intrusive...bristle worms, pods, brittle stars, nassarius snails, cerith snails, olive snails, etc.

How many gallon is your tank? 180 gallon display with 150 gallon fuge.

*What fish do you have? Breeding pair of Ocellaris, 6 dispar anthias, mandarin, 6 line wrasse, sailfin tang.

*What corals make up your tank? Majority (98%) being SPS, with a couple softies and a handfull of LPS. (soft/lps/sps/mixed)

*How many hermits do you have? Im down to about 2 hermits

*What other "clean up crew" do you have? Bristle worms, pods, sponges, feather dusters, brittle stars, olive snails, cerith snails, astrea snails, nassarius snails, and algea in the fuge.

*Do you think the hermits play a large role in your tank and if so what role is that? Nope, none that something else couldnt take care of.

*Have you observed any problems caused by the hermits? If you have, what was the problem? Irritating corals, damaging corals, tipping corals over.

I know you said you didnt want anymore, but I wanted to post

I know you said you didnt want anymore, but I wanted to post

No no im glad you did, you just reminded me of the other unsung heroes of our tanks that i didnt even mention.

I cannot recall their proper name right now but another critter to watch rather than hermits is the small mucous net casting detrius consumers that live in the rocks, those fellows amaze me

-DL

Cake > Pie

I'd really like to know what your speaking of. The only thing I can match it close to is a feather duster, but thats too easy. Please tell me more.

I also see you said you did not need more, but I also wanted to post, hope you don't mind


Tank #1
*How many gallon is your tank?
75 gall

*What fish do you have?
Yellow hog wrasse, hawk fish, achilies tang, fillament wrasse, 2 chalk basslets, 2 yellow headed jawfish, 2 lawnmower blennys.

*What corals make up your tank? (soft/lps/sps/mixed)
XL double head frogspawn-large tenicles, XL cyarenia, red and green open brain, red fungia, pectina, devils hand leather, gorgania, 2 purple gorgonia, red shrooms, 2 cabbage coral colonies, 2 red flower pot corals, two green star polyp colonies, red zoos, purple zoos, green bubble, large fox coral, fluorescent green finger leather, 2 toad stool leathers, 2 green candy cane corals, another candy cane coral-burgandy and green (though does have a proper name, just can't remember it), large button polyp colony, small maze brain, 2 RBTA, and I think that is all.

*How many hermits do you have?
originally 75 mixed red legs, blue legs, and zebras. But, unknown know, probably in the area of a couple dozen. They are the very samll ones, all less than an inch shell, and more like a cm long

*What other "clean up crew" do you have?
The lawnmower blennys listed above, the achilies tang listed above, 12 turbo snails, a red cucumber, 2 unknown black snails that resemble the Caribean black nudibranch but these are snails, 4 emerald crabs, 2 sand sifting stars, and two other large 3-4 inch snails of a white shell with orange tiger markings on them, and an orange linkia star. Oh, and lots of bristle worms lol.

*Do you think the hermits play a large role in your tank and if so what role is that?
Hair algae control.

*Have you observed any problems caused by the hermits? If you have, what was the problem?
No

Tank #2
*How many gallon is your tank?
40 gal

*What fish do you have?
4 red Scooter blennys

*What corals make up your tank? (soft/lps/sps/mixed)
Multiple frags

*How many hermits do you have?
20 mixed red legs, blue legs, and zebras

*What other "clean up crew" do you have?
2 sand sifting stars, 4 emerald crabs, and the above mentioned scooter blennys

*Do you think the hermits play a large role in your tank and if so what role is that?
Algae control

*Have you observed any problems caused by the hermits? If you have, what was the problem?
no

Tank #3
*How many gallon is your tank?
30 gal extra tall

*What fish do you have?
Pair papau onyx perculas

*What corals make up your tank? (soft/lps/sps/mixed)
gorgonia, XL LTA, cabbage coral, and some frags.

*How many hermits do you have?
none

*What other "clean up crew" do you have?
breeding pair banded coral shrimp, 6 turbo snails

*Do you think the hermits play a large role in your tank and if so what role is that?
N/A

*Have you observed any problems caused by the hermits? If you have, what was the problem?
N/A




Last edited by ACIDRAIN at 03-Dec-2004 00:58

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There is always a bigger fish...

Of course i dont mind! The more browseable info here the better, the info here has gone past being just about hermit numbers now. Thanks for posting.

pmdaggett, i knew what they were but all my good handy little "ooh, ill jot that info down so i dont forget" notes went bye bye's ... lost the lot in a computer mishap. I will find out more for you though when i can.

ps. I have decided to wait until the 6x2x2 FOWLR is operational and then the hermits can annoy the rocks in there

-DL

Cake > Pie