Blue vs. Scarlett Hermits?

[dragoneggs]

I have both blue and scarlett legged hermit crabs along with Astrea snails for my clean up crew. I am finding now that after a couple of months the blue hermits are attacking and eating the Astreas. The scarlett hermits haven't touched one Astrea. A few blue's have claimed the snail shell as their new home but some shells are being left unoccupied.

I was told at a LFS that the blue's are notorious for eating the Astrea but the scarlett's are not. Any thoughts, comments, or experiences? I am considering pulling all the blue's out and adding more scarlett's. They are about twice the price but at the rate its going I guess I will be buying more astreas if I don't do something in the coming months anyways.

 

[tike]

Yeah mark, as you have found out the blue's are much more aggressive then scarlett's. I think the blues do a far better job on algae then the scarlett's so i still buy them. It is true they will attack a snail, however i find they leave the bigger astreas alone. I always buy extra shells for them to trade out. I have about 6 blue's in my tank for 4 months now and i still have about 10-12 astreas still out of the intial 20.

 

[marinegeek101]

Yes I have been notocing that my blue leggeds are actually killing or attacking my smaller hermits. I started with 6 scarlets and 6 blue legged, i am left with 2 scarlets and like 4-5 blues.

 

[Brenden]

My blues eventually quit bothering the snails. I do like the scarlets better though. I started with about 100 scarlets and 100 blues and 250 astrea. I think I have about 40 blues and 60 scarlets left. the snails have a population of around 120. The blues would go on these rampages and kill each other. Totals are after about 2 years

 

[dragoneggs]

Okay it sounds as if it is just a fact of life. I tend to agree that the blues are more active as well as agressive. My scarlets are bigger but quite a bit slower so I really don't know who is a more effective eater.

At this point I guess am thinking of only adding scarlets and astreas in the future.

 

[IAP Brian]

I prefer the scarlet. They are much less likely to attack a snail for their shell. They are also very picky about their shells and seem to prefer cerith type shells more. Blue and red legs are not very picky about shells and will attack all most any snail. They too seem to like cerrith shells 1st but will move on to nassarius, margarita, and then to astrea and even turbos. IMO/ IME it has been better in the long run to spend the little extra on the scarlet reef hermits. They may be a little slower but I have not noticed them preying on snails any where near as bad as the blues and reds.