Texas coast hermits, reef safe?

[trozacky]

So im going to the beach tomorrow for a vacation. I always find hermit crabs. Are these safe to introduce into my saltwater aquarium. Its just fish now until it gets established and then Im going to start adding coral. Thanks

[JamesL]

Most likely not.

[Bry]

The ones I've seen get really big. That means pushed over rock, cornered fish and suffering corals. If you do find the tiny ones, let me know where!

[+Mel in Elgin]

I brought some home from the coast a few years ago and put them in a little 14 gallon nano cube. They didn't really hurt anything but they made a mess of my rock work. In fact, they kept knocking everything everywhere... I think if you can find the tiny ones you would be ok. Of course, I thought I was getting tiny ones. When I got home and put them in the tank they were 4 times the size of my largest blue leg... Anyway, good luck and have fun at the coast

[jestep]

I would be pretty reluctant to put any ocean invert in a tank with coral. If you just take into account how much more ruthless and difficult life is in the real ocean, there's probably a good chance that they will consume whatever is available. You could always test it out if you don't have a lot invested in a tank, but realistically why risk it. Also, unless you do a very thorough quarantine, you never know what else you might be introducing in the tank as well. Just not worth the risk IMO.

[jamesdean3]

+1 ^^^^^^

[mFrame]

Yeah, in addition to prob not being reef safe I wouldn't risk introducing wild parasites to my tank. Just not worth the cost.

[Timfish]

Well, I actually like having ONE in a tank. They're big (even the small ones) and CLUTZY and people like watching them. From what I've seen they're also decent algae eaters, the claws are used like scrappers. The problem like Mel said is they knock stuff around even rocks several times their size and climb all over corals with complete disregard to what you think. They're also really hardy and will take prolonged baths in strait tap water (forgot one once for over 8 hours and boy was he hacked off ) if you want to make sure you're not introducing something like hydroids into your tank.

[ramsey]

I would be pretty reluctant to put any ocean invert in a tank with coral. If you just take into account how much more ruthless and difficult life is in the real ocean, there's probably a good chance that they will consume whatever is available. You could always test it out if you don't have a lot invested in a tank, but realistically why risk it. Also, unless you do a very thorough quarantine, you never know what else you might be introducing in the tank as well. Just not worth the risk IMO.

Most inverts in a tank (and everything else) is from the real ocean. Unless you're going out of your way to buy tank bred or aquacultured stuff, it's from the ocean. However, the environment the Texas coast hermits come from is far different than a reef. That's why they might be inclined to try coral as a tasty snack. Also, it's not spending any time in a holding tank or LFS so they might have disease or pests. I put a ton of peppermint shrimp I collected from the jetties and they've done fine. They eat all my aiptasia and haven't touched a coral. The same time I added them, I added three molly miller blennies. One starting nipping at coral and the other two started nipping at clams. You are taking a risk with anything you add to your tank, but I would agree that it's even more risky to add stuff from the Texas coast.