Hermits forgiven. Emerald BUSTED.

[lastlight]

Am I crazy? My moonlights aren't super bright but i swear I saw one of them picking at my birdsnest and there happen to be some white areas in the past 2 days that appear scraped.

It's growing new little points all over so I think the coral itself is doing really well.

[fishoholic]

I have the same thing with one of my sps, one spot that looks scraped, but otherwise doing well. I thought maybe I hit it with the feeding tongs but I don't remember doing so. However I don't have hermits (I do have a crab and a pistol shrimp) so I'm not what happened to it.

[fishytime]

perhaps some dead tissue that the hermie smelled?......only time any of my inverts(hermits/sexy shrimp) have picked at a coral was when the coral was slightly damaged and had some dead or dieing tissue.....

[trinac]

I saw the exact same thing a few days ago, the hermit crab was sitting at the top of my birdsnest where new growth is forming. I took the crab off and put it on the rock near the birdsnest, and it had the gall to crawl all the way back to the top of the coral. After that, he promptly took a flight to the other side of the tank and he hasn't found his way back so far.

[Lance]

Oh yeah, those little #%@&*%#$ will eat anything. They totally stripped a large frag of Hydnophora I had in the frag tank. Banished them to the sump where hopefully they will eat each other.

[lastlight]

Hmm...I only have 5 hermits but no sump. I'll keep an eye on them I guess.

[kien]

Hermit crabs are opportunistic scavengers by nature. If they are hungry and spot an opportunity, they will scavenge anything they can get their claws on. I try to keep my hermits happy and fed with chunks of shrimp that I'll throw in every couple of nights or so. Have yet to see any hermits go to town on a coral.

[lastlight]

Yeah I thought since there was a little algae on the rocks that'd be good enough. I might have to give them some mysis occasionally as I was doing when they were introduced and maybe leave the algae to the Vlamingi since he's looking really thin.

[Doug]

Brett, my scarlets always sat in or near the top of my sps. Some of the crabs are several yrs. old. Never seemed to bother the corals and not sure what they were eating. Perhaps algae of some sort or coral slime?

I,m more worried about my larger red mithrax crabs if all their algae is gone.

[lastlight]

I've gotten really efficient at getting food to the fish now that I know the currents etc. So It's mainly sounding like the crabs are sorta ok as long as they're fed. Hate to feed those lazy buggers lol.

My emerald is the hardest working of them all though.

[Doug]

My emerald is the hardest working of them all though.

Yes mine also. The green one is a lot more shy but the reds are out always on the search for algae and never stop eating. I can darn near poke them with my finger and they dont back down.

[lastlight]

My emerald is out all day and even parades across the front of the glass. I think he's got a loose screw somewhere but he's amsuing to watch. My hermits scrap with each other more than they forage which is a deperature from when I added them!

[lastlight]

Ok lights just came on and the birdsnest def looks worse. It is not tissue recession...it looks more like the whiter areas have had the tissue scraped and the polyps look mashed. Now on my green/orange formosa it looks like there are some coralites that are sorta bent/mashed and these are a touch white.

All looks like physical damage to me and not recession or die-off.

I'll be watching after lights out tonight but I think my hermits are going to get yanked. I don't even see them grazing the rocks during the day anymore.

[Leah]

No one else going to comment on the tang...I need a picture. :wink: It's the rule on here. :lol:

[lastlight]

Haha that was just flame bait :lol:

I can photoshop something in for you though =)

If anyone wants this guy for free pm me for pickup tonight. He's coming out before I head to bed either way.

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/solana/macro7.jpg

The three plainer, smaller guys I've never seen on corals so they can stay for now.

[lastlight]

Well I never got rid of any hermits. All was ok until my Clown started blasting sand all over the tank. Now she has a new home and an anemone to boot.

Tank is doing really well but I was growing concerned over my emerald crab which has for some reason more than doubled in size in the month I had her. I was sitting in front of the tank which I do ALL the time and noticed her wrap her arms around one of my birdsnests. Normally the crab will reach around it because there is some algae to pick at on the other side. NOT THIS TIME.

She started ASSAULTING the birdsnest and plucking the polyps. I thought after a few of them she'd sort out that they weren't algae but I was wrong!

Luckilly I have been feeding her mysis and algae-based pellets on the side to keep her happy from the end of a split skewer. I placed my net in the tank and lured her over with a pellet. Took no more than 2 minutes and she was OUT. Nice having a greedy and trained crab for a pet.

This is just a warning to all. Hardest working grazer in my tank by far but as she got larger she became less 'reef safe' lol.

My daughter was looking for Sally today. I hope she forgets about her!

[Lance]

I tried an Emerald once to hopefully eat some bubble algae I had at the time. It totally ignored the algae and went straight to coral polyps. Banished to the sump.

[lastlight]

Yeah wish I had a sump...all I'm saying :cry:

[Parker]

I guess I'm gettin' lucky, my Emerald and Hermits haven't touched a thing. Then again, I don't have much in the tank so maybe they just haven't found them yet!

[lastlight]

Well...I've only got 1 or 2 frags (+/- 20 accuracy) :mrgreen:

[Parker]

I 'll keep an eye on them as I add more to the tank.