Blue leg hermit question.

[likwidglostix]

Most of my hermits live in cerith shells less than a half inch long. One moved into a bigger shell months ago, another a week or so. The one that just upgraded was "attacking" one of the little ones. They both have a legspan less than an inch, but when I seperated them they both went right back to each other. Is it possible for hermits this small to be mating? It's not like they are wanting for food. There is plenty of algae. In fact I need to pick up four more turbo snails and a few more hermits now that the algae has grown in. I just can't imagine these two are mature enough to be mating. They're less than half the size of my biggest blue-leg.

 

[reefnetworth]

my #1 rule is, no crabs in a reef tank...
#2 no turbo snails, theyre clumbsy!!

to address your problem, they are fighting til' death over a shell/home.

test for N03 & P04, both feed alga. a 25% water change weekly with RO/DI water and a good salt mix along with proper water flow will rid you of alga.

keep your Mg @ 3X's your Ca level, it will help keep parms more stable and reduce alga growth. not to mention, it will increase coralline growth...

 

[likwidglostix]

Are they really that dumb? I have a half dozen shells laying around for them to move into.
I'm not doing anything with ca yet, the only corals I have are mushrooms and they're growing fine and multiplying. I'm not getting into sps until I move to a new apt and get a bigger tank. I have no idea what mg or po4 are. It's only a 14 gal tank, so Doing less than a 30-40% w/c is impossible to mix up. I do about three to four gallons and that drops the tank level to just above half. I'm not dosing anything except for Kent Marine Pro Buffer dKH, and I only need to add that to my w/c.

 

[CraigSlice]

yeah, they really are that dumb. But there also one of my favorite things to watch in my tank.
also ive seen my hermits fight alot, and never really noticed a decline in the amount of hermits i have.

 

[Koshmar]

I think it depends on the individual hermit. I've got two of them that team up and kill snails but they never mess with each other. I would never trust them around snails though unless they are large turbos. Mg= Magnesium PO4=phosphate. I think they are attacking each other just to rid competition for food. Who knows though, they're crazy.