jacksonpt
New member
Over the weekend I noticed 2 different hermits spending a lot of time in my millepora colony. When I first noticed it, I picked the crab off and dropped him on the other side of the tank. A few hours he was back (yes, same one). I picked him off and put him in my sump.
The next day I noticed another hermit, shall we say loitering in my milli. I pulled him off and dropped him on the other side of the tank... hasn't returned.
While the hermits where in the colony, the area near the hermits appeared bleached and the polyps were retracted. Frankly, that part of the colony appeared dead. Over night the polyps were back out, fully extended as normal, but the color is still gone.
I'm keeping an eye on things and I'm not rushing to any conclusions at this point, but the only living part of the milli is the polyps, right? So if the hermits were eating, they'd be eating the polyps, correct? They wouldn't be picking at the skeleton would they?
I'm sure someone is going to talk about how terrible hermits are and that it's just a matter of time before they turn on something in the tank, etc etc... but I'm hoping that won't dominate the responses.
When I pulled the hermits off the milli, they retracted back into their shell (obviously), so I couldn't get a good look at what they were, but I have a few blue legs and a few zebra hermits in my tank. They've been in the tank since the beginning (about 2 years ago), and the milli has been in the tank for about 8 months or so, maybe a little longer.
The next day I noticed another hermit, shall we say loitering in my milli. I pulled him off and dropped him on the other side of the tank... hasn't returned.
While the hermits where in the colony, the area near the hermits appeared bleached and the polyps were retracted. Frankly, that part of the colony appeared dead. Over night the polyps were back out, fully extended as normal, but the color is still gone.
I'm keeping an eye on things and I'm not rushing to any conclusions at this point, but the only living part of the milli is the polyps, right? So if the hermits were eating, they'd be eating the polyps, correct? They wouldn't be picking at the skeleton would they?
I'm sure someone is going to talk about how terrible hermits are and that it's just a matter of time before they turn on something in the tank, etc etc... but I'm hoping that won't dominate the responses.
When I pulled the hermits off the milli, they retracted back into their shell (obviously), so I couldn't get a good look at what they were, but I have a few blue legs and a few zebra hermits in my tank. They've been in the tank since the beginning (about 2 years ago), and the milli has been in the tank for about 8 months or so, maybe a little longer.
