frogspawn and hermit crabs

[BlondeMichelle]

I recently bought some frogspawn for my nano reef at the CB Pets meeting. It was very healthy and had two polyps. Anyway, I had to go out of town a few days later and when i got back one of the polyps was completely dead and the other was totally fine. I had someone taking care of my reef and they had not noticed anything.

Since then my hermit crabs have been climbling on the skeleton of dead polyp. There does not appear to be any tissue on it for them to eat so i don't understand why they are fascinated by it. The other polyp is doing great and has since spilt and now is two separate polyps.

I'm basically worried that the hermit crabs may hurt the healthy polyps. I don't know what else could have caused the death of the other polyp. Has this ever been a problem for anyone?

All my water parameters are great so i dont think that was an issue. the dead polyp was facing some callimorphs (about 5 in. away) and maybe that could have been the problem? any ideas? will the hermits make things worse?

thanks,
~Michelle

[alton]

Sometimes thngs happen when we move our animals this might be one of those times? Crabs may be eating old dead tissue or algae? My frogspawn is more aggressive than Xenia and gsp. All it needs is current, light, and enjoy.

[matt]

It's pretty unlikely that the hermits will harm the healthy corals, assuming that you have the smaller blue legged hermits that are considered reef safe. There's probably enough tissue on the skeleton to attract them, but not enough for you to see.

[BlondeMichelle]

Thanks so much for the advice....everything seems to going well. Glad i dont have to worry about the hermits!