Trouble keeping hermits.

Not sure why but I have trowuble keeping my hermits alive. I have 2 turbo snails an urchin and a brittle star that have been alive for over a 1-2 years each. However I add a few hermits and within about 2 weeks they dissapear..... Not sure if they are alive and hidden or if they are dead. If dead I wonder if they get trapped in the rock or eaten somehow......

I guess I will try gettign some more and this time I will keep up on water changes on a bi-weekley basis to see if that is a factor.

 

hermits are confusing.they kill each other for shells and they cant live without each other.but just like all inverts they hate water changes.possibly can kill some off to.try to mix the new water with old water so it wont hurt them so bad.

 

i forgot to ask what else do you have in the tank.

 

Getting enough to eat?

 

is there enough for them to eat, could also put extra shells in the bottom of the tank so theres not to much compition for a larger shell

 

I found a hermit dead. He was just lying there naked, and his shell was up on top of a nearby rock. I have lots of algae (food) around....although my sand and glass has gotten cleaner since the clean up crew got to work.
All parameters are at good levels. No fish yet, just one Kenya tree coral and numerous small invertebrates common to live rock. Two out of three hermits are still alive, and all 5 snails and a peppermint shrimp have been happy so far. Hopefully my peppermint shrimp will do his duty and kill the glass anemones sometime, they are very neat to watch their eyes at night!

For my dead scarlet hermit my guess is another hermit got him (they are all about 2") or the 2mL of vinegar I shot at aiptasia (on other side of tank) hurt him. All I know is they should rarely die, maybe 45min of acclimation may have been too short, (died 48 hrs after arriving) or my hair algae masks some nitrates or phosphates when tested?

 

I haven't had much luck keeping Scarlet Hermits, lost 4 in my 10 gallon so I just don't buy them anymore. All I have in my tank now is the blue legged ones, from 1/4 to 3\4 of an inch in size and they do fine.

Where does one purchase more shells, I have looked but haven't seen them anywhere.

 

saltwaterfish.com they sell shells.

 

Karma to you, thanks!

 

I guess you get shells when you get hermits or they end up with extra shells either way :S