hermit crab question

[lukasnca]

I put in a batch of 15 small hermit crabs from garf on Friday. On Saturday I noticed that one of my xenias was thinned out. Today I saw a hermit crab in the xenia ... has anyone had problems with hermits eating their soft corals?

 

[scuba_steve]

doubt that hes the cause! what else is in the tank?

 

[Atari]

What kind of hermits did ya get? I agree with Keith and seriously doubt garf would send you hermits that weren't reef safe.

 

[lukasnca]

The only mobile things are a gsm clown, a damsel, an orange linkia, snails, hermits and some anemones. There are some bristle worms as well.

I know that its not the fish or the linkia and I doubt that any of the snails did it.

I have a porcelain crab (I think) but he won't come out from under the anemone at the other side of the tank.

My guess is that its either this hermit or a hitchhiker crab. I was doubtful that it was the hermit as well but he was right in there and I haven't seen anything else near the xenia. Whatever it was basically pruned the xenia back to the stalks. I have him quarantined for now ... I was going to put in a xenia in with him to see if he went for it

 

[lukasnca]

Oh one more thing ... GARF just sends a mix of different hermits. I'm not sure what kind this one was. Its brownish in colour -- doesn't look like the scarlet or blue-legged ones that I have.

 

[Atari]

I'm bettin it's the hitchhiker crab.

So you don't know what kind of hermits you got from garf? Ah ok.. just saw your next reply.. hmm.. it might be worth giving them a call and see what they say.

 

[lukasnca]

I think that I'll do that. I caught another one (might be the same one) eating a sponge that's growing on the rock. I'm thinking of removing all of the crabs that I have in the tank. I'm not sure that they're doing much good. They're definitely not touching the few small patches of hair algae that I have.

 

[lukasnca]

I'm pretty sure its not the hermit. I was digging around in the rock and saw some sort of monster come out of the rock briefly. It didn't really look like a crab but before I could get a good look it jumped back into its hole. Are there worms/nudibranches that would go after the xenias? What I saw coming out was dark had tentacles and looked kind of big. I wish that it had come all the way out so that I could have figured out what it was ...

 

[mansiz]

It could be a mantis shrimp. A troublemaker indeed, remove it as soon as possible if its really is a mantis shrimp.