Orange claw hermit

[Budda619]

Today i found my orange claw hermit eating my plate coral. 1/4 of the coral was white to the bone as he was chewing on it.. its mouth is gaping still after 9hrs. It usually has a orange mouth but not no more. What shall i do to keep a successful recovery?

 

[ivan_dalmatia]

The same stupid little hermit crab was eating my coral as well, Except mine was eating torch coral and acans??

 

[mr_X]

remove the crab and leave it be. That's all you can do. If it was the crab eating a healthy coral, and not that the coral was dying and the crab was just cleaning up the mess, it should recover.

 

[Budda619]

Thanks mr x. My fungia looks recovered by now. I had to put him on my frag rack but i will move it back down to my sand bed. Should i remove the hermit from the tank? I flipped him upside down for a time out when it happened. Hes about a inch big now. And i noticed i have two orange claw hermits

 

[Budda619]

The mouth is no longer orange its just all green now

 

[mr_X]

If they are eating a healthy coral, I would definitely remove them. If they are just capitalizing on a free meal and the fungia was dying from something else, that's different. You need to find out which was happening.

 

[Budda619]

If they are eating a healthy coral, I would definitely remove them. If they are just capitalizing on a free meal and the fungia was dying from something else, that's different. You need to find out which was happening.

My fungia was completely healthy. I wonder if it was from food as i fed the fungia that morning. Atm it looked like the fungia had ate all the food as the mouth was closed after feeding. None the less i will remove them. Excellent advice as always. Thanks!!

 

[mr_X]

The crab could have smelled the food inside the fungia. I have seen skunk cleaner shrimp stealing food from my LPS after they've totally taken it in. The reach right in their mouths and pull it right out. maybe the crab just thought the whole coral was fair game at that point....