Best Crabs

i have heard that the scarlet red hermits are the best kind, because they tend to be the least aggressive and least likely to attack snails. however, they also tend to be much more expensive. :sad:
 
I wonder what size of tank they used? 500 crabs is a LOT of crabs!

I have blue legs that I've had for nearly two years now without issue. But I started with 50 TINY (and I mean TINY) crabs that I got from another member. I really think that I didn't overpopulate the tank, so aggression wasn't a real issue because there was enough room.

Another note - I regularly see scarlets when I am diving "at depth" - meaning they live their whole life in the water. I see the blue legs "on shore" - on the rocks in the surf, in clusters or colonies in tidepools among rocks. So the natural habitat of these crabs *could* even be an issue to their adaptation and survival rates.

I also have a couple of zebra hermits and a couple of unknown green ones that are much larger than my blue legs and don't appear to be aggressive.
 
In my 175 gallon, I always had problems with blue legged hermit crabs killing each other and killing snails in order to steal shells. Even having extra, larger shells available didn't stop them from killing their tankmates. :x

The scarlet hermits are more expensive, but they ended up costing me less in the long run because I wasn't replacing them as often. Just my experience.
 
None, just buy snails because they will all eventually go rogue or kill something you don't want them to especially snails.
 
I like the scarlets better, they do tend to be less aggressive, and they seem to have a bigger adult size than the blue legs, which equals more algae eaten.
 
I ahve yet to see any of my Scarlets eat any algea. But they do hit the detritus that builds up in corners, or any leftover food that finds its way to the bottom.

Blue legs... I to have decided to stay away from them, just too aggressive. They even killed a trio of big Stomatellas, didn't even eat them or use their shells. And did I metion the Cowery? Killed it too while it was trying to make it to the glass to escape.
 
David I adhere to a strict no crab policy, waivered once for emeralds and yanked them out after they didn't do a thing to bubble algae and ate some of my snails.

In the scheme of things though, the true Bahama Scarlets are the least problematic, though they will go after each other. There are many different types of hermits and ID is important. The red legs, are not Scarlets, are fairly aggressive on snails and other hermits. The true blue legs have a pretty good record on hair algae, but also on snails. The mini hermits you get from Indo-Pacific suppliers are horrible on smaller snails and do very little clean up. The electric blues are by far the nicest looking, but also can grow rather large, taking snails etc as well as other hermits.

Hermits have also been known to chew on fresh cut frags so keep that in mind when you setup your new frag tank.

In the end, the equation I have always used is effectiveness vs cost. Hermits for all their interesting movement and look within the tank, really do very little for the money you spend for them. They range from around .75 to 2.50 per crab. At the same time, you can spend quite a bit more on snails. Turbos, astreas etc run 1.50 - 2.00 per and eat much more algae etc and when combined with hermits end up feeding the crabs in the end. If you get the high power snails like the tiger trochus, you spend a bit more, upwards of 3.00 per snail, but they eat a ton of algae, reproduce in the tank a lot of times.

I haven't found a hermit or crab yet that could do anything a snail couldn't do, except eat other snails. If you choose your snail population well, you can handle hair algae, regular algae, film diatoms, sand diatoms, detritus, cyno patches and just about any algae except bryopsis.

The ideal package for a sandbed based tank in my opinion is a mixture of:

Tiger Trochus
Conchs
Atlantic Nassarius (Tongan are larger but more aggressive in going after weak animals before they are actually dead)
Limpets
Cumcumbers
Sea Hare (if you have bryopsis to battle)
Ceriths for the hard to reach spots
Stomatella

If you get things like Bryopsis or Bubble Algae, you'll need to consider other options, sea hare for the bryopsis and things like Dejardin Sailfins or Sohals for bubble algae.
 
I just ordered 1,000 blue leg crabs from Reeftopia for $180. 1-to-1 there are alot of other crabs that do a much better job than the blue legs but you can buy nearly 10-to-1 to other crabs meaning the blue legs are the biggest bang for your buck. With buying them 1,000 at a time for only $180 I dont care very much if they decide to enter the octagon with each other once in a while.

-John
 
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