damm hitchhiking hermit

[reefer]

i bumm'n... found my flame angelfish dead today. and then found a small red legged hermit crab hitchhiker.... the flame angelfish was the picture of perfect health yesterday. well fed, never touched a coral, an active critter.... i had only 1 hermit in my tank, and it was blue legged, an i banished him to the refugium long ago. must have snuck in when i added 25lbs of liverock a few weeks ago...
what's a pain now, is he is at the bottom of my tank stuck under deep in a rock crevace....

i support capital punishment for crimes committed by crabs.

[captexas]

I have to agree with Josh. Unless it is very big, a hermit would have a hard time killing an angel fish, even when it is sleeping. Now, once a fish is dead and on the bottom of the tank, hermits will enjoy feasting on the fish's flesh which is maybe what you saw. Only think I have seen hermit crabs kill are snails and other hermits.

[captexas]

Also wanted to say I have recently gotten away from hermit crabs and I'm working on having not only more snails, but a wider variety of them in my tank. When I started my tank up over a year ago, I got a nice clean-up crew and it included scarlet reef hermits and red-legged hermits. Hermits a great scavengers, but I finally got tired of seeing all the snails I keep buying disappear! The only hermits I would recommend are the scarlet reef hermits. They are not as active as some of the other varieties, but they are peaceful and never pick on anything else in the tank.

[reefer]

well, i don't think it was old age that did him in. what about bristle worms? could that have caused it? i don't think it was my bloodred hawkfish......

[captexas]

How long did you have the flame angel? Flames are very sensitive fish and they have had a poor survival rate over the past year. I've had one before that seemed in good health and come home from work to find it dead compeltely out of the blue.

[texasreefer]

well, i don't think it was old age that did him in. what about bristle worms? could that have caused it? i don't think it was my bloodred hawkfish......

Bristleworms are also scavengers and they will not kill any fish. The hermit crab probably found the fish dead and just helped himself to a free meal.

[captexas]

Yes they do require their diet to be supplemented with sponge. There are some frozen foods that contain sponge that are made for angles specifically.

[Instar]

Most wild caught fish we buy that die a month after we get them, die from an intestinal upset that is the end result of shipping and drug treatment. Durgs are not only used to cathc them, but are used along the way at each stop along with diluted water. It masks serious problems and creates some. Having a fish for a month does not mean its healthy and an active angel can be sick as a dog and on the verge of death. If you can prove it didn't have something wrong with it, then look around in holes in your live rock at night for a club anemone. They live in the dark and will kill anything that runs into them. Its better to buy an angel that is not actively swimming up and down, to and fro, but rather one that is searching for things to eat on a rock and a little more shy.

[Tim Marvin]

I'll second that Instar. My thoughts exactly as I was reading along. I have seen perfectly healthy fish just drop dead. I also had one that looked great suddenly have a siezure and float to the top, when I went over to get what appeared to be a dead fish it suddenly woke up. This fish did this a couple more times during the day and then suddenly got better. It never did it again???

[MikeP]

There are some theories that dwarf angels , the flame in particular, suffer from a type of PTSD thus so many drop dead unexpectedly a month or two after they get home. I have a couple of articles on it somewhere I'll see if I can find them and post it here.