Hermits & DSB's
- Thread starter happyclam
- Start date
meschaefer
Premium Member
No, you will be fine.
BCreefmaker
New member
1 per gallon always? advice in stocking fish or inverts that deals in absolutes is generally always bad advice. no one keeps the same type of set up. whats right for most is not right for all. and lots of people, like me prefer mostly snails and other inverts to do the cleaning because i find hermits can be too destructive. the few i have love climbing my sps for no reason. they are also active scavengers, so i would see how having enough hermits would keep certain types of life from living in your upper sandbed.
Chihuahua6
Premium Member
No offence to the op but this is not an advanced topic. It should be in the beginners' section.
I read that article also. I feel this is an advaced topic because most are saying hermits are fine for a deep sand bed, contrary to what is stated by Tom Murphy in his article about deep sand beds. Ron Shimek also has the same type of advise.
Personally I don't know but am very interested in this topic. Interested because it is going against the norm.
Personally I don't know but am very interested in this topic. Interested because it is going against the norm.
happyclam
New member
Also, I was wondering, are Pepermint Shrimp safe for a DSB/Fuge? I just found about 10 Aiptasia on my newly introduced LR ruble from Premium Aquatics. I was thinking about the Aiptasia eating nudibranch, but there pretty expensive for there size, and might just get killed right a way. Whereas the pepermint is a little more robust and hardy, cheaper, and I hear it can be a effective Aoptasia eater. Another plus would be is that if I got 2, they might breed, and introduce more eggs and larva to the water colum, helping to augment the fishes diet (or else I might get baby shrimp).
Everything eats something else. Variety, and moderation help to make it all work 
A couple of small hermits will not eat more sand bed critters than can reproduce, a couple too many and you have problems. Same can be said for many other critters such as shrimp. Some will be utterly devastating to a sand bed critter population even with one, such as large hermits, sand sifting stars, sand sifting gobies, etc.
A couple of small hermits will not eat more sand bed critters than can reproduce, a couple too many and you have problems. Same can be said for many other critters such as shrimp. Some will be utterly devastating to a sand bed critter population even with one, such as large hermits, sand sifting stars, sand sifting gobies, etc.
happyclam
New member
Would 2 Pepermint shrimps be fine in my 12"x18" refugium/DSB? It sounds like the shrimps aren't bad for the DSB in moderation, I just wanted to make sure I don't overpopulate my fuge with shrimp. And if the fuge did get overpopulated with shrimp, would that mean they would eat all the micro critters, like the sand sifting sea star? Thanks for the help.
I've good luck with kalk paste. Make up thick slurry of kalk, turn of the pumps for an hour or two, inject the aiptasia and leave a thick blob of kalk on top as well. Let sit for an hour or two and than turn the pumps back on. Some of the larger ones, or the ones well buried in some crevice might take a couple of treatments to do them in.
happyclam
New member
Thanks for the idea billsreef. Do you have an exact "recipe" to make the kalk solution? Where could I find something to inject the anemones with? Also, I found this idea that uses natural Aiptasia control. You put the Aiptasia infested rock in a 5 gal bucket, and introduce a couple of Pepermint shrimps. The shrimps seem most likely to eat the anemones if they cannot find any other food, so they would be fed very lightly if at all. After 2 weeks I would return the rock to the fuge, and keep the pepermints in there for a week or two just to make sure they got everything. After that the shrimps would be removed & I would introduce a detrivore kit from Inland Aquatics. Do you think it would work?
I have never injected the paste into the aptasia. I just turn off the flow to the tank for 10 minutes or so and when everything calms down I slowly drip the paste right on top of the aptasia with a syringe and encapsulate it. Seems to do the trick for me. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes before reintroducing the flow. Occasionally I have also siphoned out the kalk and aptasia after a few minutes to prevent a kalk overdose.
