Red Legged Hermits
- Thread starter herpchat
- Start date
nIx_tank
New member
I don't think that you have to fear about red legged hermits.
Even if they are the scarlet hermits (yellow eye stalks), you shouldn't have to worry.
I have never had my hermits munch on anything, except detirus, algae, and the occasional snail. They did eat my feather dusters coming out of my sand bed, but I have never seen them munch on any of my corals.
In regards to your second question, I would try to find out if there are excess nutrients in your tank in which the cyano is feeding on.
I had an outbreak of cyano when I first got into the hobby, and I reduced my light cycle, reduced feeding, and increased flow. The flow is what really helped me, but that could have just been my situation.
Once I had done this, my cyano problem went away.
Also, the more that you can suction off your rocks, sand, etc. the better. A turkey baster is your friend.
I do know that their are chemicals that you can use, but I will let someone else chime in, as I do not have exp. with those.
My .02 on this one.
Good luck!
Even if they are the scarlet hermits (yellow eye stalks), you shouldn't have to worry.
I have never had my hermits munch on anything, except detirus, algae, and the occasional snail. They did eat my feather dusters coming out of my sand bed, but I have never seen them munch on any of my corals.
In regards to your second question, I would try to find out if there are excess nutrients in your tank in which the cyano is feeding on.
I had an outbreak of cyano when I first got into the hobby, and I reduced my light cycle, reduced feeding, and increased flow. The flow is what really helped me, but that could have just been my situation.
Once I had done this, my cyano problem went away.
Also, the more that you can suction off your rocks, sand, etc. the better. A turkey baster is your friend.
I do know that their are chemicals that you can use, but I will let someone else chime in, as I do not have exp. with those.
My .02 on this one.
Good luck!
reefnetworth
Premium Member
ive never heard of them eating any, if they have adequate diet supply i wouldnt see why they would. i do know they (red legs) eat cyano. i watched them in my 25g eat a patch of about 3"x4" in about half a day. i also know they will flip over cerrith snails, eat them and invade the shell for their own. its nature, only the stongest survive. have a beautiful day and REEF-ON!
papagimp
COMAS Rocks!
My scarlets seemed to relish my astrea and cerrith snails, I had to move the majority of them to the sump till they got big enough not to get eaten, that and added alot of extra "hermit homes"
As for the cyno problem, went through that myself, I used Chemi-clean to get rid of it overnight, and used cheato in the sump to lower phosphates and nitrates. I personally did not alter my lighting or feeding since I new the high nutrients was from my source water (after being ran through an ro/di unit, how bad is that!)
nIx_tank
New member
I think in terms of agression, it would go like this. From docile to agressive.
red-legged, blue leg, zebras.
I have had all of those in my tank, and the only thing left are some blue leg and some zebras. The reds faded out pretty quick, leaving the blues and zebras to duke it out. Not saying they actively fought, but I just noticed the populations changed.
I would say that that pretty much all the hermits are relatively the same, in regards to diet. They won't harm corals, but will eat snails. I have TONS of empty shells now, along my sand bed from hermits munching on my snails. Hate to say it, but it is true.
I just expect that every year, I make a large purchase of snails, knowing that over time, I am probably going to loose them to predation.
Scarlets are quite docile, I have never seem them actually take over a snail for its shell. Granted, this may be b/c the one I had was large, and I already had some large empty shells for it.
In regards to starfish, I would think you might have to worry more about a starfish eating your hermit, than the other way around!
Not saying that a starfish will eat your hermits, but I have never really heard of a starfish getting eaten by hermits.
Travis L. Stevens
New member
Hermits, like all crabs, are opportunistic feeders. While they mainly scavenge for leftover food, they won't turn their nose up to an occassional snail for a free meaty meal and a new home. Rarely do hermits that are used for cleanup crews actually prey on other things like corals, anemones, clams, starfish, etc, etc, etc. I would be more cautious about hermits that are meant to be more ornamental or is not often found as a cleaner.
As far as cyanobacteria goes, it is like algae, diatoms, and dinoflagellates. If you limit one nutrient supply, it will die. Most likely it is feeding off of excess nutrients. Stepping up your tank husbandry helps, but most new tanks will eventually go through a cycle of this. Soon, you'll probably have an algae bloom, too. It's just part of having a new tank.
As far as cyanobacteria goes, it is like algae, diatoms, and dinoflagellates. If you limit one nutrient supply, it will die. Most likely it is feeding off of excess nutrients. Stepping up your tank husbandry helps, but most new tanks will eventually go through a cycle of this. Soon, you'll probably have an algae bloom, too. It's just part of having a new tank.
captbunzo
Premium Member
ALL crabs, with the exception of Porcelein Crabs, are opportunistic feeders and might eat things you don't want them too, if they don't think they are getting enough to eat.
As for cyano.
1. it is a natural progression in a tanks maturation, so perhaps you just need to wait a month...
2. increase flow, add chaeto to a sump, etc.
3. reduce phosphates with a phosban reactor (GFO)
As for cyano.
1. it is a natural progression in a tanks maturation, so perhaps you just need to wait a month...
2. increase flow, add chaeto to a sump, etc.
3. reduce phosphates with a phosban reactor (GFO)
Travis L. Stevens
New member
Wow Paul. We're on the same track of mind at the same time
captbunzo
Premium Member
1. Nitrate tests are horrifyingly inaccurate
2. Zero nitrates may mean nitrates are being consumed as fast as they are being created. That does NOT mean you don't have a nitrate issue.
Yep - that second bit is freaky, but I promise, true. And rather then the Kent stuff, I'd recommend finding a Grannulated Ferric Oxide solution (phosban, rowaphos, phosAr). The "reactors" (which are nothing more then simple canister filters) are extremely inexpensive @ about $30.
(Sorry so terse, I have somewhere to be and am running late. Perhaps I should turn the computer off.)
2. Zero nitrates may mean nitrates are being consumed as fast as they are being created. That does NOT mean you don't have a nitrate issue.
Yep - that second bit is freaky, but I promise, true. And rather then the Kent stuff, I'd recommend finding a Grannulated Ferric Oxide solution (phosban, rowaphos, phosAr). The "reactors" (which are nothing more then simple canister filters) are extremely inexpensive @ about $30.
(Sorry so terse, I have somewhere to be and am running late. Perhaps I should turn the computer off.
)
dugg
New member
I banished all of the crabs to the sump, and my corals all breathed a huge sigh of relief. I got tierd of things getting knocked over, and seeing them climbing across my clams. They really don't contribute much to the system anyway. I have one emerald crab in the display, and snails handle everything else.
Travis L. Stevens
New member
I haven't heard much on the reports of Chem Mat. Chemi-Clean is an erythromicin (spelling?) based product. Yup, that's right. A medicine. There are a few people here on the RC board that are using it straight off the counter.
Travis L. Stevens
New member
While for a general cleanup crew, this is often a safe approach. I still like to keep a FEW hermits in my tank. They are quick across the rocks and sometimes the substrate to snag up extra food. I find it difficult to get any good detrivore or scavenging snail to actually get on the rocks to take care of it before it decomposes. I guess I have roughly a 1:7 to 1:10 ratio of hermits to snails. I think I have about 30 snails in my tank, and there are only three hermits that I will be keeping. I have other blue legged hermits in there, but they will be transfered out soon enough. The three that I keep I've never seen before. They are all white without a predominant claw and seem to only come out at night.
dugg
New member
Any time i put food in, the tank turns into a nassaurius snail lol. They eat anything and everything that hits the bottom. My nassaurius snails have exploded to where i bet there are around 50 to 60 of them in my 30, so the crabs would either eat them or starve anyway. The snails never spawned until after i removed the crabs, now there are a batch of eggs on the front glass all the time.
