Safe hermits or not (Interceptor)

[BJanecka]

I will be starting my RB treatment this weekend or early next week. I have a 75 gal with a variety of clean up crew members including peps and blue leg hermits. I have 1 pep and about 25-30 blue legs of various sizes. I have read conflicting reports on whether or not to remove and QT them during the treatment. Some say they might re-introduce the bugs whenever I move them back. So I'm asking for opinions on how you treated and whether or not you safed your hermits.

[pickle311]

I believe the interceptor will kill all of the snails and crabs

[cpreefguy]

^^^but I bet thats nothing compared to your Harlequin Tusk h34r

[BJanecka]

So is it safe to remove them into a QT for 4 weeks without having to worry about any RB hitchhiking and making it back into the main tank? Or should I just replace them after the treatment (seems like a waiste). But on the other hand, does everyone put new cleanup crews in a QT?

[moneytank]

I left mine in the main tank. Im not sure how many peppermint shrimp were in there before the treatment, but i know atleast one did not make it and i have not seen any since. Most but not all of my blue legs did not live through three treatments. It seems like most of the larger hermits lived. For me i decided it would be easier to just replace them rather than try and take them out. Actually i started to take them out but after looking for a while i decided to just leave them. I also had a large hermit crab in my sump that the kids brought back from the coast that lived through the treatments.

[Instar]

Take the hermits out if you can catch them. They are not red bug carriers. There is nothing in a hermit to support a red bug.

I had 3 of 100 blue legs live through the treatments and 4 or 5 scarlets of a dozen lived. Snails are not an issue in this treatment. All commensal acro coral crabs will die as will all the mysis shrimp.

I would catch and QT as many of the hermits as possible in a safe place and the acro crabs if you have any and can tease them out. There is no excuse for killing sea or reef life if it can be helped just because they don't cost much to replace! It may seem like they come from an inexhaustable source, but that is not so. Would this be anit-conservation of the resource?

[BJanecka]

Looks like I'll be setting up my 10 g tank for them with a heater and a small powerhead. I was thinking of putting some 1" pvc fittings to act as temp caves for the hermits and shrimp in the QT. No substrate and no dedicated light.