Crabs in a reef tank ok?
- Thread starter SCFatz
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lando
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As long as you stick with small reef hermits (blue-legged or scarlet) you should be fine. Other cool crabs include emeralds, porcelin or strawberry crabs for variety. All are generally reef safe.
All the hermits will kill snails for their shells, if you don't have any shells available for them. Scarlets are better than most for NOT killing snails.
I would stick with any of the hermits that stay very small. Any hermit that gets bigger than an inch or so will normally 'change behavior' and become a pest, and blue legs and scarlets are better than most for being 'good' crabs. You can also try haloween hermits if you can afford them - they are awesome looking hermits.
Emerald crabs are excellent for the reef, they love hair algae. I have found that they can get rather large and strong too, and will knock over stuff not secured well.
Any crab that has red eyes should be avoided, as a rule (even if tiny) they will eat corals.
As a general rule, all the crabs fall into the 'watch closely' catagory with the only exception the filter feeding sandcrabs and porcelan crabs - these will have net-like mouth parts and will never pick on corals or fish.
If I were you, I would ditch the larger hermits at the LFS for something else. I have also seen larger hermits kill and eat smaller ones as well as any fish they can catch.
I would stick with any of the hermits that stay very small. Any hermit that gets bigger than an inch or so will normally 'change behavior' and become a pest, and blue legs and scarlets are better than most for being 'good' crabs. You can also try haloween hermits if you can afford them - they are awesome looking hermits.
Emerald crabs are excellent for the reef, they love hair algae. I have found that they can get rather large and strong too, and will knock over stuff not secured well.
Any crab that has red eyes should be avoided, as a rule (even if tiny) they will eat corals.
As a general rule, all the crabs fall into the 'watch closely' catagory with the only exception the filter feeding sandcrabs and porcelan crabs - these will have net-like mouth parts and will never pick on corals or fish.
If I were you, I would ditch the larger hermits at the LFS for something else. I have also seen larger hermits kill and eat smaller ones as well as any fish they can catch.
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