Turbo snail or red leg hermit crab?

[Charger]

Was wondering which one of the two would be better to have?

 

[bleox]

Both

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337

 

[Charger]

Oh ok cool I have 4 hermits and 2 turbos in there right now and thinking of adding a few more snails but any benifit from one to another?

 

[DesertGeek]

Depends on how much algae is in your tank, what else is there, and what kind of algae you've got, as the critters have somewhat different eating habits. Turbos are great with diatoms, fine hair, some grean algae - but they are big and can "bulldoze" small decor or corals. Also, if the tank is too small or not enough food, they will starve. Keep in mind, although we all want clean tanks, at a certain point there can be too little algae and snail populations can crash. (Not that there is greater risk of this with Turbos than other snails, just that they are bigger per snail so fewer of them will eat more.)

Red leg hermits are great for hair algae, and some eat red slime well, but keep in mind they are often brought from Baja California, and so like the "Margarita" snails from that area may (this is pretty definite for the snails but debated for hermits) have somewhat shorter life spans than "truly tropical" species like scarlet or blue leg hermits in our warm tanks. And of course, Turbos clean glass well, while hermits have "some difficulty" climbing it...

 

[Charger]

Thanks for all that info and I did end up picking up 4 blue leg hermit crabs and a crab also which seems to be doing fine

 

[Justin]

At some point, your hermits will go for the snails. IME, over time, I've always ended up with very few snails and the hermits inside their shells. (this doesn't include the hundreds of snails I see at night that are tiny).

 

[DesertGeek]

Justin is right - under certain conditions. I usually don't lose many snails to the hermits, but if you have very little algae and feed your fish sparingly, they are opportunistic creatures and will turn to other sources of food - snails or even some soft corals, if truly starved. I also keep lots and lots of extra shells in the tank, as they "upsize" fast whenever they molt, and need new homes. If none (that is none they find suitable in size and type) are available, they will kill snails rather than go without. But I love the hermits anyway, and they do a great job on the hair algae.

Oh, and a side note - besides providing lots of shells, you can also reduce "snailicide" risk by having only very small snails. Certain kinds also have less desirable shells, to a hermit... Ceriths are their fave in my experience, but they don't like Astraea or Nerite shells nearly as well. In fact, red-legs prefer them so much that I have had red-legs kill Ceriths and take their shells when new shells were available, but only of the "Astraea" or "Turbo" shape. Blue-legs are much less picky, and mine have picked many different shaped shells.