A
Anonymous
Guest
do blue leg hemits eat corraline algae? i have about 14 so far in my 55 gal. thanks,
aaron
aaron
A
Anonymous
Guest
Not that I can tell.
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sanity is overrated!
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sanity is overrated!
A
Anonymous
Guest
the reason i ask is, i just started getting noticable corraline growth in my tank not to long ago and i was witching a small piece grow and now its gone. i wonder what happened to it?
aaron
aaron
A
Anonymous
Guest
They are Reef Goats and they will eat anything including coraline. Send them back to the LFS for a credit however small. Your tank will like it.
A
Anonymous
Guest
I really don't know, but I always wonder what the heck they are eating when they are posted up on a fat patch of purple coralline algea, lightfoots too.
A
Anonymous
Guest
I think hermits are omniv.. err (spelling???) they will basicly eat anything small enough to fit in their mouths, which I think includes corraline, my corraline growth always seems to be better with less hermits.
A
Anonymous
Guest
Are you sure it was coralline?
[This message has been edited by Matty2000 (edited 18 May 2000).]
[This message has been edited by Matty2000 (edited 18 May 2000).]
[This message has been edited by Matty2000 (edited 18 May 2000).]
[This message has been edited by Matty2000 (edited 18 May 2000).]
A
Anonymous
Guest
I have 100 hermits in my 90 gallon tank. At least 30 of them are blue legs. Never seen them eating coralline......at least can't tell that they are. If your coralline is growing like it should be and alkalanity/calcium levels are staying constant and in line I don't think you will be able to tell if hermits were eating any. I'd worry more about keeping your parameters in line to spur coralline growth. Eventually your coralline will grow so fast you won't even be worried if a hermit ate some coralline or not. Even if hermits do eat coralline they serve an excellent maintenance purpose in our reef tanks (eating algaes, cleaning up deitrus, cleaning up a fish that dies under your reef, etc.) In the long run your coralline will cover everything. Be patient.........RR
A
Anonymous
Guest
Could you possibly have an urchin that you bought or came with live rock?
A
Anonymous
Guest
I read an online article (I wish I could find it again) regarding coralline growth. The article described hermits as a major cause of what hobbyists think is coralline erosion.
In the article he expressly mentioned (this is what made it so memorable at the time) that blue-legged hermit crabs were less likely to eat coralline so if you MUST have hermits, the blue-legs were a good choice.
Keeping this in mind, I have read numerous posts about hermits and coralline trying to determine whether this theory was true or not . From personal experiences shared in the posts, I have come to believe that all hermits are capable and perhaps do eat coralline.
As an experiment, I have ordered small microhermits from www.ipsf.com. I will isolate them with one piece of rock to determine if they eat the coralline.
Other than this experiment, I have decided to keep a hermit-free tank, utilizing other non-chemical methods of algae control.
In the article he expressly mentioned (this is what made it so memorable at the time) that blue-legged hermit crabs were less likely to eat coralline so if you MUST have hermits, the blue-legs were a good choice.
Keeping this in mind, I have read numerous posts about hermits and coralline trying to determine whether this theory was true or not . From personal experiences shared in the posts, I have come to believe that all hermits are capable and perhaps do eat coralline.
As an experiment, I have ordered small microhermits from www.ipsf.com. I will isolate them with one piece of rock to determine if they eat the coralline.
Other than this experiment, I have decided to keep a hermit-free tank, utilizing other non-chemical methods of algae control.
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