Hermit Size and red leafed plant

[bc-matty]

Hey there guys!

I bought my last four pieces of Live Rock! This time though the guy at the petstore didn't know too much about Live Rock.. and was having a difficult time getting my pieces out of the store 2 feet deep tank. It seems that this particular store is no longer carrying salt water fish and pilled all their live rock, hermits, snails, and corals into one tank. So needless to say that when I took my rock out I had 4 hermits. This is my concern. When I have seen blue legged hermits, there were small. Here is my confusion about what a blue hermit looks like...

One Hermit.. has red legs, red stalks and yellow eyes.. I figure a scarlet crab. The other three vary a little. Two have blue and black stripped legs and stalks with red feelers. The smallest one is black and grey with blue stalks. Is the small one a blue hermit crab?

Also one of the blue and black stripped hermits is huge! He would be about the size of a Dollar coin, or roughly the size of a large garden snail. He lives in a conch type sell.. the twisting long type.

I am keeping shrimps and corals along with clowns in the near future. Are any of these crabs a danger? I am scared they may attack something.

Also this is new to me.. but my smallest piece of live rock has a clump of red leaves on it. They are rather stiff to the touch and are a deep red colour. Any idea on what this is? And should I get rid of it?

 

[clown1]

not sure about the hemits but the plant sounds like it could be "ogo" caulerpa. couldn't be entirely sure. if it is then your in luck it's a fantastic looking plant which grows quite slowly until it gets to about 4-5 inches, straight out of the live rock, i am regularly giving and throwing away 4ft long clumps of it. apparently it's very good in the sump for the ecosystem method it comes from hawaii though i'm not sure if it's endemic there. those i have given clumps to have had no success keeping it, they have MH lighting but i only have flouro's, suggesting it might not like strong light. if it is ogo then enjoy!!! i love mine and so do tangs they regularly nip the ends of the leaves. you could try taking a leaf and chopping it up and adding it to the tank, it should start growing on other rocks. hope this helps.

 

[bc-matty]

Thanks for the help clown!! I am sort of worried that the red plant attached to my live rock is in fact "Dictyota"! The more I look at it the more it looks like red antlers. The funny thing is when I remove the rock from the water, the leaves stay perfect... meaning the don't flop over.

As for my "king kong" sized hermit... I am debating if I should keep him or take him back to the petstore. He was an accidental "gift". I have to say though he has a lot of personality. Last night he was walking around the sand with his eyes popped out of a crack in his black shell. He picked up a long piece of coral and was waving it around before tossing it aside. He kinda looked like Darth Vader ... or Darth Hermit!

The smallest hermit, I noticed has one large left claw, and also is very active in the tank. He only has blue eye stalks.. other than that he is black and grey colours.

Debating still about my piece of live rock with the red leaves. I just bought it, so I always could return it... perhaps.

Still confused as to what to do!

Matt