This is a discussion on What fish would be best to add? within the Saltwater Fish forums, part of the Saltwater Fish and Coral Reef Tanks category; -->
I don't recommend linika stars to anyone that asks "what should I add to my tank" because chances are you have limited salt experience ...
I don't recommend linika stars to anyone that asks "what should I add to my tank" because chances are you have limited salt experience at this point or wouldn't be asking. I'm just trying to use my level headed judgement on this one. They are not even recommended for experienced hobbyists. So the idea that because one person is lucky enough to keep one alive for awhile is no justification to continue recommending them to everyone else.
Blue leg hermits are awesome maintenance animals, and pretty easy to take care of. You'll want to make sure they are the standard blue leg hermits and not "electric blue hermits". The electric blues are much more aggressive.
The standard blue leg hermit crabs are small, so count on having quite a few of them, and they trade off shells, so you'll want to have extra empty shells available so they don't fight for those of the other hermits.
Also, if you get blue leg hermits, this will eliminate pretty much any other type of hermit in that tank. Larger hermits will attack and kill the blue legs.
Good water quality is very important when keeping inverts of any sort, so just keep up on water changes and watch the water quality with water testing periodically.
alot.......no just kidding. but you can get a bunch. i think some say like 1 per gallon for cleaner purposes. but you don't need that much, just get what you can.
In a 50 gallon I would get at least 2 dozen (24) of them to help with your maintenance. They stay pretty small, and with enough of them in there you will actually get to watch them, and they're awesome maintenance animals.
Later, if you can get more, up to another 2 dozen would be ok, provided the tank isn't overstocked with animals in general.
I'm going on four month's with my purple and orange linkias! I was told the blue linkias were the most difficult to keep. I would love to get a blue one, but I will see how these guys do before I drop another $25
