Who uses and likes hermits in the reef tank.

[DogueDeBordeaux]

I have plenty of snails and their not doing the job hermits will do. I have a 180g with just snails. I also have a 55g with scarlet hermits and snails. Everthing is doing great in the 55g. I know that the hermits are suppose to be bad for the reef tank now, but who still uses and recommends them. What kind do you have?

[organicreefer]

i use hermits,ive never had a problem.maybe cause i feed alot and have lots of extra shells.i keep red legs, left handers,those micro's from ipsf,and even the dreaded blue leggers.... OMG!!
ive never witnessed an "attack" to date,and they seem to be very actively scavenging to me .
the more diverse youre clean up crew the better.
besides they are cool to watch (my nephews love them? )
i like hermits.

[mastaJ]

Originally posted by organicreefer
those micro's from ipsf,and even the dreaded blue leggers.... OMG!!

Dreaded blue leggers. LOL! The micro hermits IMO are the most aggresive. Funny thing is all I see on the backs of the micros' are snail shells. My ONE blue leg is still happy with his original shell. lol...

[Iron Crab]

Don't know about a reeftank- I don't have any corals yet but I have about 65 hermits in my tank and they have really cleaned things up. At the moment I have redlegs and about 15 black and whites. Haven't seen any fights but they have a lot of room.

[eses]

I have left handed and red scarlet hermits, both work well as long as I don't overfeed the tank. Otherwise they will only eat what I feed and not the algae and dietrus.

Combined with the snails they do a good job of removing the algae from the rocks, and clean up any left over scraps the brittle stars don't get.

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I have several different types of hermits, and I like them all. Unlike some creatures, their lifespans seem to be fairly short, so after a few years they'll mostly be gone, IME.