hermit crabs: good vs. evil

looks sort of like these small white star fish that a friend of mine had growing all over his tank, they were a real nuisance, he pulled off over 200 from the front of your glass. As for your supposed blue leg, I have no idea I have seen them before in our store, and they don't seem to bother anything, but I couldn' ttell you what they were
 
*gulp* that's not good. How would I remove them? Or do they have to be removed?

Let me ask the more appropriate question...

Why were they a nuisance?
 
IF thats what it is, then remove it. But in reef tanks it could anything, from a growing coral to a new bad bug thats going to kill everything. He removed them by hand, one by one. ANd he removed them becasue he could not see into his tank, and they were covering everything, all of his rocks and corals,, non of his corals would open up, his clams shut, so he did it to save his stuff. He estimated he pulled out a total of 1000, but on the glass there were 200. He still picks them out of his tank, but not anywhere near how he was doing it. What a mess if you ask me.
 
That's frightening. I hope it's nothing bad, but I don't know. Maybe they are helpful! ^_^... I hope...

Also, do you know if Maiden's hair is bad in a reef tank?
 
awesome! :D One of my friends told me to pull it out emmediatly, and I thought I should ask first, & I'm glad I did! ^_^

Thanks!

BTW: does anybody else know what those white things are on my crabs? or what kind of crab the supposed "blue leg" is?

Thanks again!:D
 
Removing dead snails

Removing dead snails

I'm new to all this and I'm not sure if this question isn't too smart but once the snails are dead...should they be removed immediatley or is it okay to leave them a day or two? My 3 peppermint shrimp have eaten all my aptasia and seem to like the snail feast. Is this good or bad? To let feast or not? As for why the snail is dead I think as indicated above..agressive blue leg hermits and I do have an emerald but he pretty much minds his own business picking away at the rock..always on the go.
 
If your shrimps are eating it, leave it...if they don't eat it, and it decays you will have problems. But it is a nice treat for your Shrimps non the less. :) Hows that for an answer. :)
 
Perfect

Perfect

Just what I wanted to hear. I didn't feel like pulling those 3 peps off it right now. Just new to this & when ya think your doing the right thing you get on here and get many other helpful suggestions...just didn't know if this would be an influence on the levels. Thanks for your input.
 
I can tell ya, everyone on here has their own beliefs and their own opinions. I've left snails in there before even without somethign eating on it and never had problems before, its just munchies for your shrimps, I wouldn't worry about it. And then you have extra shells for your other Hermits although I'm asssuming the shells are already being worn by various Hermits. :)
 
i import all types of hermits, and the zebra's seem to be the mosy aggressive, i have actually had them catch healthy damsels and eat them, if they are not properly feed
 
My god........that sounds like some new Horror Flick from Hollywood, Attack of the Zebra Hermits. LOL......gives you a funny picutre doesn' tit.
 
Zebra hermits

Zebra hermits

Scarlet reef hermits are my choice for 'safe' hermits but they are pretty sluggish during the day. My zebra hermit in my nano in addition to pretending to be an acrobat killed a bumblebee snail for his shell/food. Ok so he wanted a new shell. 2 weeks later the little bastard caught one of my nassarius, killed him , ditched the bumblebee and has a nassarius shell now. He's coming out this weekend once he gets to a spot I can yank him without knocking anything over.

Bluelegs are annoying also , but they do eat a lot of crud off the sandbed. Zebras just seem to climb all over my corals and cause trouble.

On Mithrax I had one that got big and I caught him pulling up some zooanthids (maybe he was trying to graze algae but I mean like pulling up at the stalk). Also he waved his claws at passing fish kind of like lunging at them. I have recently replaced the godzilla sized one with a few dime sized ones and will be keeping an eye on them.
 
And what about them eating Coraline and what about Red Legs, not that I even know the diff between Scarlet Reef Hermits and Red Legs.
 
Scarlets are solid red with yellow eye stalks and the red legs have red stripes that run down each leg with a drab colored body.

Hermits are in general evil little things, but cool. Scarlets and blue legs are the least bastardly of the bunch, the others much more so. Actually very few problems with scarlets except with "cerith" snails, astreas and turbos they usually leave alone.
 
I read this whole thread before I realized you guys all posted before March of 2003 and have probably learned a lot since then, but here was my comments:

"Blue legs will always create a problem."
I would never say always. MANY people would say blue legs are fine. You aslo have to consider they will act very different in different situations and different animals have different personalities.

newbieneedshelp
The first think I would say is you could easily be making a mistake many newbies and even experts often make. You can't blaim the cops for killing people when they show up every time you see a dead person. You can't blaim a cleaner every time they show up to clean. If you haven't seen the zebra ever fight agressivly you can't assume it killed the other hermit.

You will hear bad things and good things about everything in life. If you want to keep an animal that will never fight or mess with any other animal in your tank. The limit to the amount of animals you can keep is one.

ausnakeguy1
Have you looked into porcelains?

newbieneedshelp
I don't see any pictures... what shots are you talking about? Were they removed from the post?

gregory854
What species are you talking about?? Are you talk about the bright white pure black once that are about 1cm in size full grown? I would like to have a hermit that ate fish like that, would be amazing to see. We have a common name problem here. There are some striped hermits that get to be over an inch in size that I normally just call striped ones, but they are duller colors almost brown and tan rather then black and white.

technoshaman
Do you like feather dusters or any tube worms? If so thank your zebra because the bumblees have been said to kill them.
 
:lol:

CRABS, you say!!!

I too was initially a crab keeper with hundreds of the dear little hermits, of many varieties, wandering about the tank. Soon I was snailless and, as time went by, the little critters in my sand bed began to disappear. Since I ran a fuge I had replacement troops there but I decided that as the crab population decreased to not employ new recruits. I eventually went crabless and noticed that my sand bed activity was markedly improved. Also snails tend to last a lot longer.

I'm with the Wiz that there is all sorts of debate on the issue but I feel they are not that important to have as was once thought and having none may be of merit if you run a DSB.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

W
Hermit crabs attacking my fighting conch
Replies
4
Views
568
wendyay55
W
P
Can I get another fish?
Replies
3
Views
339
griss
griss
P
50 Gallon Stocking Help
2
Replies
21
Views
592
Urka
U
Drummer98
Do I need to worry about this ??
Replies
4
Views
607
Drummer98
Drummer98
C
Hermit crabs
Replies
2
Views
500
griss
griss
Back
Top