refugium contents and invertibrates?

[Cozen89]

Hi,

I have a HOB refugium with LR rubble and chaeto. There is a bit of algae and debris accumulating in there. I added 5 blue leg hermits and an emerald crab. Are there ok in there or will they feed on the chaeto and my growing pod colony?

 

[Randall_James]

I would not add them to the HOB. HOB refugium is just that, a refuge.. crabs are predators and so sort of defeats the purpose.

It is not uncommon to find someone dumping a hitchhiker crab in a refuge but I do not recall seeing anyone intentionally adding crabs to one.

 

[kenny77]

Refuiguim mean that. a place were you keep with no predators. no crabs, no shrimp, no fish. just nutrient export plant and animals like feather duster.
I think 1-2 hemit won't do much damage. but keept it like that. just a few(1-2)

 

[Cozen89]

so the hair algae will eventually die out and I should remove the emerald crab from the fuge? And hermits eat pods too right? They are very ver small so maybe I'll take them out once they get a little bigger.

 

[coast2coast7390]

emerald crabs much on cheato like its candy

 

[elegance coral]

Throw some snails in there to help keep things clean. The hair algae will not go away on its own. physically remove the hair algae. Change some water and try to keep the nutrient level down. With a small refuge like your HOB you shouldn't put crabs of any kind in there.

 

[Cozen89]

ok i'll try to take the crabs out. hopefully they do ok in my main because I didn't want to add any hermits to the main tank. My past experience they have killed my snails. Good thing they are super small. Thanks for the replies everyone.

oh and the hair algae didn't grow in there. It came on a small piece of rubble rock I bought and I didn't notice it. hopefully it will just die out and not grow.