Electric Orange Hermits

[CD]

We have two of these in our tank that we won via raffle at this past Oct. MAAST meeting. I'm pretty sure they came from Sam's neck of the woods, but not positive. These hermits have gotten HUGE. I always keep extra shells in the tank for the inverts to grow into, and these hermits are currently in the biggest shells I have. :o They only come out at night to feed, and tend to knock over frags...but not a big deal. One of them has a particularly large claw. I'm wondering if any of you have this type of hermit in your tank? Could they become a danger to my fish & inverts since they are getting so big? I guess I'm still trying to figure out what caused the Hippo to jump tank, and this is the only thing I can come up with. Comments? I can try to get a pic of one tonight if that will help.

Wendy

On a side note, they are beautiful, but I don't want to endanger the rest of our livestock.

[Ram_Puppy]

I doubt it was your electrig hermits. They are Calcinus Elegans, the electric oranges are endimic to Hawaii, the electric blues are endimic to the Marshal Islands. They are primarily herbivores and have been reported to even eat hair algae. They can get large, but have a rather short lifespan of about 2 years. I have never seen or heard of one attacking a fish, but, you know how it goes, if a crab has an opportunity, don't think it won't take it, it may, or it may not. All crabs are opportunistic, no matter how reef safe they are, however, I think this is an excellent reef tank species (even if they do knock over a frag here and there.

If you don't wan't them, I will takem off your hands!

[CD]

If you don't wan't them, I will takem off your hands!

Heheh...if you *really* wanted them, you should've said "Ooooo, they will eat your fish". ;) JK

No, I think they are really beautiful. I was just being paranoid after the Hippo incident. I don't worry about them knocking frags over from time to time, I was mainly concerned about the other livestock. I was surprised to see how big they've gotten so quickly though. Thank you for the reply

Wendy

[Ram_Puppy]

they really are cool little guys (well, not so little huh?) I have found very little info on them as pertains to reef keeping, but one of the books I have (the only book I have actually seen them listed in) says they have a 2 year lifespan, which saddens me because they are really cool looking an i mals.. I hope the book is wrong.