hermits eating polyps

[reefhope]

I've noticed a decrease in my zooanthid colony(brown button polyps) and last night I spied the reason - it appears my blue leg hermits have taken a liking to them.

Any one else experience these hermits bothering corals? Should I remove them, I have about 1 dozen as part of my cleaner crew, until now I've never noticed them bothering other corals...

Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

Do you feed your hermits? I've only heard of bluelegs eating coral when they're starving.

 

[Anonymous]

I haven't had a problem with my blue legs. I don't specifically feed them either.

Ty

 

[Bob Gardner]

Are you sure that they are Blue legs or are they possibly the sort that sometimes get shipped with Blue legs but have greenish legs? I have about 70 blue legs in my 200g reef and I wish that they would east some of the Polyps which are getting to be a nuisance.

 

[naesco]

Not normally.
Are they eating them or the algae between them?
Do a complete water check and if everything is OK feed your polyps and your hermits a bit.
Thank you.

 

[reefhope]

Thanks for the responses. I do not directly feed the hermits, they pick up the remains of the brineshrimp plus and prime reef that I feed my clarkii clown and bangai cardinal.

I first noticed them on the rock picking at remaining bits of food but after looking closer I actually saw a couple of them devouring polyps. I am 99% certain they are blue-leg hermits, perhaps I'll try feeding the tank a bit more.

 

[Brad M]

Very true, I have the same problem with my blue hermits eating my polyps, and found that feeding him fixed the problem.

 

[davelin315]

It's my understanding that blue legs are voracious feeders and will eat just about anything in your tank despite their diminutive size. I have never had a lot of blue legs in my tank, so I can't say from experience, just from what I've heard. When I had blue legs before, I only had 5 or 6 in a 29, and they got eaten pretty quickly.