Harmful Hermit?

[alarmguy66]

I got this guy in what was supposed to be a lot of 5 blue legs at the LFS. He is about to become a hermit crab cocktail, as he is eating all the fresh new shoots of macroalgae I have growing on my lr. The other crabs are perfectly happy sifting the sand and scraping the rocks, this one is the only one eating the plant life.

Sorry, but I cant zoom in on him enough to get a good picture. His body is a deep forest green. His antenna are deep but bright orange, as are the tips of his claws.

Any ideas whether he is being useful in some way or just a nuisance?

[jamal-188]

Almost all crabs are oportunistic feeders, what this means is they will eat everything and anything they can get there little claws on. It's very difficult sometimes because 2 exact kinds of crabs could favor different foods, all my hermits ever did was kill and destroy everything I didnt' want them to so they are all in my brothers tank now.

[Thelionfishman]

Hi,

Keep a look-out for hermit crabs that can destroy your beautiful fish collection. I have a few hermit crabs in my small tank which had six different damsel, one mandarian fish and one royal gramma.
Some of the fishes slept during the night on the bottom of the tank near the live rocks. Each day I noticed that the fins on some fishes where torn off a bit here and there.
It took me a while to figure it out, but I finally resolve my problem.


Happy Holiday

[Bearfan]

Look anything like:

http://www.nwmarinelife.com/htmlswim...nosimanus.html

It's the only one that I found with similar coloring.