Is there a such thing as bad Hermit?

I bought a bunch of snails from reefcleaners to clear up my brown diatom problem. They did an awesome job but I noticed that some of the snails he sent were hermits. I considered that a plus and even threw in some empty shells so they wouldn't mess with the real snails. After a while I noticed one of the hermits was growing significantly bigger than the others. I think 4 are blue legged hermits and the one in question is black with orange whiskers... (see pic) Are all hermits benificial? He seems to just romp all over everything but luckily he doesn't eat any of it (at least that I can see). He's just annoying because he causes all my corals to close as he goes by.

I have a 20 gallon Long about 5 months old.

 

Hermits can be jerks at times, not really much you can except maybe banish them to the sump if you have one.

 

All hermits are capable of being jerks,blue legs are just one of the least likely.

I think the trouble maker might be a scarlet,but hard to tell from the blue in the pic.

Is that an overflow to a sump on the far right?If so,throw the hermit in the sump,problem fixed and there'll be plenty of food for him in there.

Nice looking tank btw.

 

Thanks as this is my first sw tank. I don't have a sump. I do 15% water changes. The thing to the back right is a filter (floss,carbon,purigen) Back left is cheesy homemade chaeto refugium. Space is just limited, I would have loved to do larger than a 20 gallon. That black hermit is double the size of the other regular blue hermits yet when they came they were all the same size. I'll just off him to my friend who was a 125 Gallon. Thanks all !!!

 

Yes. In fact, there are more bad hermits than good ones. Some species are predators that can get huge. Most are medium-sized shoreline scavengers, but they, too, can be opportunistic.

I haven't yet researched the exact species, but I have the same ones as you. I had ordered 32 hermits with my cleaner package- a mix of red-leg and blue-leg. I'm now down to 12, most being black with red antennae, and larger than the common reef cleaners. I pulled them out just 2 days ago because of their escalating rogue behavior...

 

yeah, i've had to pull a few red legged due to snail killing, but haven't seen anything negative from my blue legs knock on wood

 

Yup,i had to remove my largest red leg a couple weeks ago for debotury.

 

The blue-legs are just sneakier.

 

How long do hermits typically live? Not trying to hijack this thread, but I started with ten Mexican turbo hermits from a lfs then I get a bunch or snails from reef cleaners. I have noticed that the hermits will sometimes kill the dwarf ceriths, but just this week I have found 2 dead hermits out of their shells. Just wondering if this is normal or if I should be concerned. The other hermits seem to be just fine.

 

SteelerMike,

Are you sure these were not molts?
Are you providing any extra shells that are slightly larger for the hermits to move into?
I have even small hermits live for a couple years. Terrestrial hermits must live for several years.
Hermits can be very sensitive to swings in pH and SG, they can also fall victim varies types of fish.

@OP I no longer keep hermits, while I find their antics very amusing, I also find them knocking over frags and climbing on my sps very frustrating.