Blue claws living on my Blasto prob.

[RobReefer]

I have these blue clawed hermit crabs in my tank, that are molesting my blastomussa. They will not get off the top of it. They have been hanging out in the same 1" spot for 4 weeks now. The blasto underneath them are not dead and do not appear to be dying. But on the same note I don't want them to ge damaged by the crabs. Any ideas how I can keep them off?

 

[xdusty6920]

well you really have three options. 1.) get rid of the blue hermits because they arent very efficient at keeping your tank clean ( snails can do the same tasks alot better imo)
2.) if you really want to keep them toss them in your sump or fuge. 3.) is alittle trickier but can work. take a longer thinner rock and sit it straight up and down. then take a flat saucer shaped rock and sit that on top of the base you just set. this creates a table effect and forces a hermit to go upside down to get to the top and 99% of the time they will tumble off from the weight of thier shell. some wont even attempt it. in addition, moving the coral from its typical position will reduce the preasure a far amount in itself.
im wondering if you feed your blastos? hermits will quickly go to a coral when they sense food and ive seen them rip a coral open for the food it just ingested.
i ran into this same problem in the past and just opted to get rid of the hermits and replace them with nassarius. they leave things alone and are just as effective.