red legged hermit crabs

I just picked up a dozen of red legged hermit crabs and they seem to keep themselves busy. I read they are peaceful and I see one big one that keeps bullying the margarita snails leaving them flipped over. Are they aggressive and bad in anyway for corals? Also, can they eat the algae on the glass?

 

That guy may be too big for his shell and is looking to steal someone elses. My larger hermits will get together and kill my nasarius snails just for their shell. Kinda pisses me off. Make sure you put additional shells in there to allow them to have free shells when they grow instead of them killing off ur other lil creatures like snails.

 

Sorry, didnt answer ur question...
I know that the only thing that my hermits do to my coral is just disturb it every once in a while when they walk over it. I havent seen a hermit nip or irritate a coral in my tank. I keep a lot of softies. If they look like they are picking at one, make sure to check they arent picking at something in between the corals. There might be extra food or a smal mbt of algae.

Hermits dont scale glass very well. The highest I watched one get up was about 5 inches and he was clining to the silicon sealent in the corner. Take that back, one hermit hitched a ride on a turbo snail and got to see the top of the tank before falling. Hermits do well at controlling algae on corals, rocks sand etc. If you want something to help with glass, invest in some snails. I like to use large turbo snails. They work fast. Or angel fish. A majority of their diet is algae and my coral beauty angle nips off the glass all day long.

Hope that helped.

 

Thank you for your response.

 

Do you have the dwarf red legs or the Scarlet hermits?
Sometimes the dwarfs are called Cortez red legs...
It does make a difference as to which ones you have...

Happy reefing!

 

i always tell people...all in all, crabs are opportunistic eaters..they are what they are.

 

I have about 6-7 small ones and had I emphisize had one large one. It now cleans up the sump. I had it attacking and eating snails left and right. They were not larger snails which would have made sense for the shell but these were limpets and small snails all my 20 turbos the smaller turbos I pulled out 20 shells and it had not made a home in any of them. Soooo I agree the red hermits are oppertunists.

 

They are bigger than the blue legged ones and I believe the scarlet ones are much larger.