are the reef safe scarlet hermets eating my star polyps???

[lmh11706]

i have a 5x4 inch rock with the top that was covered completely with green star polyps.a couple of weeks later there are bare areas where there use to be polyps- about 25%.i always see the small scarlet hermit reef cleaners-reef safe i thought-dont have any other problems with them eating other corals-crawling over them-maybe they think its like algae.nothing else in the tank that would do it-i thought they wouldnt.this happen to anyone else???

[ultra spikey]

I just noticed my hermits starting to climb all over my finger leather. I dont know what theyre doing.

[Sk8r]

I have plenty of the scarlets and the star polyps. I don't think so. My guess is that algae is growing on them during the night when they retract and that the scarlets are eating the algae off the tube-lets. Check your water parameters. Something is causing the gsp to retract. When you solve that the scarlets won't get up there any longer.
You should be 0 in ammonia, nitrate, nitrite; 80 temp; 1.025 salinity. 8.2-.3 in ph; 8.3-10 in alk; 400-450 in calcium.

Leathers can also grow algae on their surfaces if there's too much phosphate in the tank and if they're seriously retracted. Things that remove phosphate: phosban, or a refugium.

Hermits will climb on corals: their feet don't hurt them, they're so light. They perch in odd places to molt and rest afterward. A molting hermit should not be disturbed.

[Chihuahua6]

Hermits can eat coral. They will eat anything if hungry. Is there enough food in the tank for them? Try dropping a few sinking shrimp pellets in your tank near a hermit, or start with one to avoid pollution. Once the hermits discover it they will eat it. I had hermits eat my xenia on several occasions. Once I discovered it was the hermits I realized they didn't have enough to eat in the tank which was well maintained with a super low bioload, meaning not much food went in. I started feeding four shrimp pellets to about a dozen hermits twice a week and the xenia grew back fine and they never touched it again.