I just got a new hermit crab. He loves his new home, but I noticed my live rock has a few white patches, like the color has been eaten off. Could this be from the crab? My old one(had for 5 years then died) never did this.
2007-03-05 14:00:51 · 3 answers · asked by cuttingras 2 in Pets ➔ Fish
hmmm he was in a tank by himself with no rock or anything....not sure if I like the store I bought him from. It's only been 2 days since I got him and I've been trying to watch where he goes. Does him eating the green stuff on the rock mean more pink/red will grow?
2007-03-05 14:10:34 · update #1
Hermit Crab, garden variety I guess, lives in a shell has prett big clippers, have had the rock in there for a few years with very little pink, mostly red... what's up with that?
2007-03-05 14:22:12 · update #2
Not eating the pink/red eating the greenish grey stuff(which is good), there is a slight pink glow to all of the rock in my tank, so the coralline is growing, just not as fast as I'd like. my email addy is cuttingras@yahoo.com I can send you a pic of the suspicious area and of the crab if you'd like.
2007-03-06 00:07:35 · update #3
Blue legged hermit crabs are one of the best for a reef tank. You don't mention the name of the kind in the tank now. Sounds like this one is eating everything beneficial from the live rock. You could have gotten a bristle crab on the live rock too. They sometimes are on it for free. The bristle crab will demolish everything on the live rock. Coraline algae (pink) is the kind you want to keep growing. After turning out the lights at night in the tank, set nearby and see what nocturnal creatures are lurking about. You don't want bristle worms either. They are a really bright pink and have the same negative affect on your tank.
2007-03-05 14:19:57 · answer #1 · answered by kriend 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Are you saying that it looks like the coralline algae (the hard pink/purple hard) looks like it's been scraped? I doubt that the hermit did this - they will eat the algae and all the missed pieces of fish food they can find, but don't have the claws or mouthparts for this kind of damage.
This actually sounds more like something a sea urchin will do. Small ones can come in unnoticed on like rock 0 I had one that was about 1/2 inch when I found him - he's over an inch wide (body only, not spines) now.
2007-03-05 15:57:10 · answer #2 · answered by copperhead 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Crabs like ripping things apart. He might be doing it, or you might have brought in a live rock disease with the pet shop water.
2007-03-05 14:04:41 · answer #3 · answered by Moral Orel 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋