Speaking as someone with an almost all-hermit reef tank, 7 species of hermits cohabiting peacefully with multiple snail species and 3 fighter conchs - no kills either - just supply them with plenty of extra shells in sizes slightly bigger than theirs & hermits are the best crew! I give them some fresh meaty substances (usually diced shrimp) every couple days along with some nori, despite the feedings they still do great cleaning & no aggression. Scarlet hermits have a bad rap, mine haven't had problems but they're quite small, but a beautiful blue knuckle hermit or Halloween hermit might change your mind.
Got to agree with you on the pistol shrimp/goby relationship. It is indeed one of the most interesting weird relationships in the whole of nature. and a privilege to be able to watch in our living rooms.
Love that with me I had two sexy shrimp and loved them first time I had the little guys for over 18 years they are very cool inverts and are more enjoyed then any other invert dancing all day. They actually get bigger then I thought
my favorite inverts are upside down jellyfish. of course, i have to keep them in a separate tank with no powerheads or other strong flow, but they're so neat to watch
I have a Tiger pistol shrimp and he’s amazing to watch with the goby! I also have a Pom Pom crab, and in my 33 gallon tank he mostly comes out when I’m feeding the tank, but it is still a really cool invert! And also my serpent star is amazing to watch, it’s crazy how big they can get, but how peaceful they are and how they can fit in small spaces
I had a massive population of asterinas years ago and they seemed nothing but beneficial. However, mine were also wiped out by harlequins because i forgot to buy a chocolate chip star for them once.
I know some who keep small tanks to breed pest starfish for their harlequin shrimps to eat, so theres that too if you are really dedicated and have a decent chuck of time and money to spend on that
i have a pair of conchs and they are all over the tank and even sometimes climb the glass! I also have a bunch of blue leg and scarlet crabs and they never bother any of my snails. The green leg hermits are the most aggressive I've found although they are pretty funny to watch clunk around. I Love my pom pom crab and my candy cane pistol too but both are fairly elusive.
Love my tiger pistol shrimp, paired with a yasha goby, they've found the perfect location front and centre of tank always out and about. So true about anything on the sand bed becoming structural materials lol My cleaner shrimp is awesome too wacko jacko he walks on water 🤣
Never had a problem with hermit crabs killing snails. It may be as I've always ensured there are plenty of empty shells available if the want to swap shells or maybe it's simply luck. Favorite invert, I have a Randalls pistol shrimp (Alpheus randalli) paired with a Yasha goby (Stonogobiops yasha). It's when the takes a single large grain of sand and watching the care it takes to place the grain outside it's dwelling which really gets me.. Really lucky that their "cave" opening is facing the font of the tank so clearly visible. At the moment considering the possibility of getting a couple of aptasia eating peppermint shrimp, simply to try to avoid playing whack a mole with aptasia X. Not sure how long they'd survive with a couple of wrasse in the tank though.
My favorite invertebrates, maybe even animals in general, are my clams. I have a hippopus and a maxima. They are a limiting factor on what kinds of fish and crabs I can keep, though. Oftentimes, "reef safe" doesn't mean "clam safe" and I 500% rehomed a fairy wrasse who thought that my hippopus was tasty.
Agree with everything apart from cleaner shrimp, mine was a pain in the arse always trying to get food from corals after I fed them really aggravating them got to the point I took him back. Yours might be different because it has to watch out for some of your fish but left unchecked mine was a menace!
Great vid. I really like the idea of Hermit crabs. Aside from the snail issue - any other problems? Do they munch algae at all..... I've read differing opinions....
Great videos lately and always. Love cleaner shrimp but they steal food from corals. I can’t say I’ve ever had hermits kill my conches though. My conches over the years, that have only died, died from starvation
Urchins are supper cool. I also just bought a huge turbo snail for the lols. I just have to make sure he's alive because that'd be a tank crash. Thinking of a name maby Tonka the turbo truck.
The tiny hermids will not hurt your snails, maby some of the smaller ones but I have not see it happen yet. I've got 20 small redleg hermids and 4 emerald hermids and the emeralds indeed can kill some snails (and irritate lps). They are good detritivores and eat the hard to reach hair algae.
Hahahaha my diamond goby has a little catsle built into on of my caves. Hahaha little shit moved almost all of my rubble zone within the first day into a cave mouth, and now has a ridicliously massive cave.
Ha ha 😂 that was a funny video maybe you should call your urchin scouse...I love my cleaner shrimp and the trochus snails are non stop, the best snails I have are starry Astrid snails they seem to have a thing for cleaning frag plugs! I have also witnessed hermits killing trochus snails....gotta get me a scouse urchin but tank upgrade has to come first.
Loads, but it doesn't seem fair to me to pull them out of the ocean where they're not pests just to keep these guys. They also eat crown of thorns stars in the wild, which is an invasive species that can wipe out coral reefs. So Harleys are valuable in the wild.
cool list but i want to ask something,i have a 250liter tank and i want to add a pom pom crab,a porcelaine crab,1 or 2 cleaner shrimps, a tuxedo urchin, a starfish(probably the ophiolepis superba) and a tiger pistol shrimp with a goby....can they all live together(my fish are all reef safe) and will they produce too much nitrates in my tank????
Yep! 2x Evergrow IT5012s and an Orphek OR3 120 blue plus. I've done a video for the Evergrows, just getting used to the Orphek then will do a video for that too.
Great list - I came back from a road trip to croatia with an urchin, several hermits and snails (plus a massive blenny which has it's own tank in my son's room). The snails all died but I am thinking it may have been the hermits. The urchin is awesome - does help with algae but not as well as I hoped - and doesn't steal frags. I like that my emerald crab eats bubble algae but I suspect he ate a frag of clove polyps. I find nassarius snails to be quite good and tetrus and trochus snails are awesome. Going up the list of great inverts for me is my serpent star, bristle worms and asterina snails - the latter 2 being free cleanup crew. My favourite invert though has to be my clams - my Hipoppus is probably the best water clarifier you can get and my crocea is just stunning. I have a blood shrimp also - great call on cleaner shrimp. - that one is near the top too. I would get the multicoloured urchin but I'd rather spend money on corals. I just got 3 XS peppermint shrimp which have disappeared - but I only have mollies and pipefish so they will be somewhere. If I see less aptasia popping up they may occupy the second tier. Yeah I think I will evict the hermits eventually.
Can you close a debate between me and my wife please? We have been discussing what you do for work and I said IT and she said electrician? 😂🤣😂🤣 who is closet?
okay so why did u just not feed the harlequins other star fish like sand sifting stars or chocolate c hip stars? seriously, they arent hard to keep alive at all