are hermit crabs harmful to acans?

[saltySamurai]

is mine the only hermit crab that decided to start munching on an acan? I got a nice frag last weekend, and it was settling into my tank nicely, then I came home a couple of nights ago to find a hermit crab standing on the colony and munching away on two of the polyps. I debated having boiled crab for dinner:mad2:.... is this highly unusual, or more common and I need to do something with the rest of my hermits?

[garygonzales]

i would watch him closely..but i think because you just put in a new frag he just might be checking it out..maybe just cleaning it.........

[saltySamurai]

I couldn't believe it either, so I watched for a bit - he was using his big claws to rip chunks of the polyp flesh off - he got about 3 of those before I banished him to the sump.

[Sheol]

Some Hermits will eat corals. BE CAREFUL!

Matthew

[scolylover]

hermit crabs in my opinion are harmful to acans because they steal food from acans!!! it harms their stomach! ahah.

[saltySamurai]

either the whole 6 polyps were equally stressed or the crab picked on all of them equally - I lost them all over the weekend. I'm thinking they were so stressed that they started to die, and then the crab found them tasty - not the other way around(?)

[travis32]

I've got about a dozen red and blue leg hermits, and have a tiny acan frag with 3 heads on it. So far the heads inflate everyday and it seems to get slightly bigger each day. The crabs seem to be leaving it alone completely. I had a snail crawling over it one day, but, it just kinda was passing through and must have found the acan easier than the sand to move across.


So far *finds wood to knock on* mine's doing good.... Paid too much for it to die.

[fstar25]

That is usually what happens as far as I can understand. Many times we blame things for "attacking" something, and sometime (not always) it is a case of preying on the weak and dying.

[silentcivilian]

My opinion, Hermits are evil, I have one hermit in my tank, lefthanded blue hermit, this one fellow single handly killed all other hermits in my tank, I even saw him tear one crab out of the shell, chase him around and kill him. Now that he is the head crab, he lets everything be. But Conan did kill 5 other hermits. I watch him like a hawk. Not to mention he is out numbered by the 40 snails in my tank.

[roblack]

crabs and shrimp are evil.

[Sheol]

Shrimps are evil? Come on now, I can see crabs as being satanic inverts but Shrimp?
LOL

Matthew

[Walking_Target]

Ask anybody who has ever had a camel shrimp: they can be quite evil.

I only have scarlet leg reef hermits. While one will steal food from corals (little *****...) the others hide in the rock during the day and leave everything alone.

[coralpimp2009]

ive only had them look like there doing damage but was just cleaning the algae

[amore169]

Shrimps are evil? Come on now, I can see crabs as being satanic inverts but Shrimp?
LOL

Matthew

i had to remove my cleaner shrimp cause he would steal the food away from my LPS.

[travis32]

I didn't know LPS ate food? Don't they just filter stuff out of the water, use light, and absorb calcium. What food would shrimp steal from a coral?

[star27624]

LPS benefit from being target fed meaty foods.

[Sheol]

They can be fed. I understand that some grow more when target fed, then when left to their own devices. Basically, mine get what the fish miss. Also, no way to get past those finned gluttons to spot feed my corals.
Camel shrimp? The books warn against putting them in a reef.
My Peppermint never bothered ANYTHING.

Matthew
IME, Hermits just basically walk all over sessile inverts. Sometimes that can cause harm.

[125galbiznotch]

screw hermit crabs the always walk all over my polyps and make them close, im about to get rid of them all

[biger]

My pepermint shrimp ate a few aptasia I had and then proceeded to eat my green mushrooms. I guess they like small anemone type apetisers!

[Crustman]

I got rid of my electric blue hermit crab becaue he ate part of my first and only acan.

[listen2bob]

+1 on camel shrimp not being reef safe.

I have had some blue legs pick on acans, but the crab that nearly wiped out my acans was a red emerald crab. ate my rainbow acan till I figured it was dead.
left the skeleton in the tank and it has been regenerating very slowly.