Captive reared blue regals

[Andrew]

I have banned all forms of crabs in my tanks:

IMO (in my opinion) crabs=eco terrorists.
Disclaimer: not everyone believes/has had bad experiences with hermits, and my case may not be the norm.

I've had a 1.5 inch hermit kill a 5 inch. tang,
(he caught the tang in the back of tank at night in a very narrow area; tang was still alive when I found him in the morning, when I set him loose; he went shortly therafter).
1/4 inch blue legs eat feather dusters (I've witnessed this, wish I took pics),
emeralds strip live rock clean (seen this in tanks other than mine as well)

no more crabs for me

a.k.

[Jenn]

Yup, fixing to be my motto too. So I guess I can't bring you these 2 guys :-D Thanks Andrew.

[Instar]

I just got 2 Hippos, wild caught from Aquarium Warehouse. They are doing great!! They are also eating planktonic foods just like the anthias as well as grazing all kinds of algaes.

I have 116 hermit crabs (104 mexican blue legs, 12 carribean scarlet reef) in my 125, an emerald crab and decorator that eats algae only. My rocks are covered with little dusters, tunicates, vairous polyps of all sizes, spontaneously generated tubastrea corals and sponges. I have some very small fish in there too and a tank raised seahorse. The exact crab species matters. They are clean up crews, not eco-terrorists as termed by some. They only eat fish if they are dead first. I have tons of stuff growing in my substrate as well, like hundreds of tiny brittle stars, worms, limpets, chitons, shrimp, crustaceans. Zoos, mini-zoos, shrooms, leathers, stars, sps, etc., etc. Those crabs don't touch a thing in there.
A 1.5 inch hermit is the wrong species.
I'll take all your blue legs and scarlets, just bring em to the meeting or I can come and get them. Just let me know.

[Jenn]

I disagree with the fact that hermits don't kill live fish, but the kind I have and are talking about is the wrong one, the big 1.5" kind. Maybe I just the extreme, but a fish will simply swim by, no matter what size, and the hermit will reach out to try and snatch it. Maybe the regal was sick or something, but she was eating and swimming fine 2 hrs. before we caught the crab eating her. I need to get some of those smaller ones when I take these 2 guys back.

[Instar]

Some of the big hermits will try to grab or pounce on anything, especially at night when they are most active. I've had some pretty large ones with blennies and ocellaris clowns without trouble. I knew a guy that brought one back from the beach at Corpus. Big mistake that was. Injury leads to trouble and the crab wins, even over a large puffer eventually. An eating fish is not necessarily ok unless its deficating correctly too. I have a club anemone in one tank. It lives within a hole or cave in the LR, only venturing out at night. Its sting is toxic and very deadly. If a fish gets stung, the fish is crab food after the anemone gets done with it. There can be all kinds of stuff in LR that rears its head just evry now and then, say on the full moon? Its really hard to buy a 1.5 inch tang killer hermit crab, even if it did really happen. Do you know what kind of crab it is Jenn? What LFS would sell you non-reef-safe crabs for your tank? If the LFS is picking them up in Corpus, those critters are bad dudes in some tanks.

[Jenn]

Instar, I honestly had no idea that the hermits were a threat, and did not even ask the lfs I got them from. I have 3 of them, one has red legs, the other looks like an evil skinny brown, and the other is an electric blue. I have had no probs w/ the elec. blue, he hides most of the time, day & night. I have definitely learned a valuable lesson the hard way.

[shellback]

If you want to get rid of the electric blue let me know I will be happy to give it a new house.

[Jenn]

You got it Shellback. He's really cool, but I'm unsure of any of them now.

[Instar]

Jenn, can you bring them to the meeting? If they are not reef safe one of us should be able to tell you. I'm sure someone there will take them if they aren't safe and put them in a predator tank.

[Jenn]

I think thats a great idea. Kind of odd thing happened last night...the red one popped himself out of his shell, and into this HUGE one. Looks pretty funny, he can't hardly drag it.