Bad hermit? Big hermit?

Gordonious · 11/22/2006, 08:27 PM

Anyone had a hermit like this before? Anyone know how they behave, eat, max size... anything? Please let me know. It keeps crawling on my red gorg which is already sick and every time it does all the polyps disappear.(probably just hiding)
To me it almost looks like one of the ones that gets larger and eats viciously.

TomDe · 11/22/2006, 08:32 PM

Lately I am starting to feel like all my hermits are bad!

As far as yours he looks mean. I don't know, never had a black one.

Gordonious · 11/22/2006, 08:41 PM

BTW I know the red one is Paguristes cadenati(red leg) or a related species. The other one with black/brown and white is the one in question. The one that is visible and in focus.

Gordonious · 11/23/2006, 11:21 PM

I swore I had a hermit that looked like this one, may possibly be the same one at different ages or conditions? http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showp...hp?photo=67809

sean48183 · 11/23/2006, 11:29 PM

That hermit is on its way to becoming one bad dude. If you had a big predator fish only I would say this bad boy would be a great clean up crew but in a reef you are asking for trouble. I had one that was the size of a fist and i put him in my fuge and he treacherized it. Moved huge rocks around and shifted all the CC from one side of the tank to the other. Taking him back to the lfs and trade him for a scarlett. They are the only ones I really trust in a reef.

Gordonious · 11/23/2006, 11:45 PM

You tell me this now... When I'm hundreds of miles from my tank! Sigh. It still frustrates the heck out of me that I have not been able to identify half of my inverts to species. I think I will write a letter to a marine biologist who was once my professor.(works with crustaceans for a living)
You can laugh if you want, but sadly I have too big of a heart to take anything back to the store and actually I bought this guy a long time ago. I am not sure where I got it. I will probably add him to a sump I am setting up and installing soon.

Jon

tatedelo · 11/25/2006, 11:19 AM

It looks like a red striped hermit, they have a green variation. They are a little clumsy and grow to about 2/3 the size of a baseball. They eat all sorts of stuff. Mine ate algae, dead fish, any food that would hit the ground, literally just about anything. Mine was not aggressive, just clumsy. I would say be careful around corals because it will knock it over anything that isn't bolted to the tank.

11/22/2006, 08:27 PM	#1
Gordonious Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Newark DE Posts: 3,393	Bad hermit? Big hermit? Anyone had a hermit like this before? Anyone know how they behave, eat, max size... anything? Please let me know. It keeps crawling on my red gorg which is already sick and every time it does all the polyps disappear.(probably just hiding) To me it almost looks like one of the ones that gets larger and eats viciously.

11/22/2006, 08:32 PM	#2
TomDe Keep it simple Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Boston Posts: 308	Lately I am starting to feel like all my hermits are bad! As far as yours he looks mean. I don't know, never had a black one.

11/22/2006, 08:41 PM	#3
Gordonious Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Newark DE Posts: 3,393	BTW I know the red one is Paguristes cadenati(red leg) or a related species. The other one with black/brown and white is the one in question. The one that is visible and in focus.

11/23/2006, 11:21 PM	#4
Gordonious Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Newark DE Posts: 3,393	I swore I had a hermit that looked like this one, may possibly be the same one at different ages or conditions? http://reefcentral.com/gallery/showp...hp?photo=67809

11/23/2006, 11:29 PM	#5
sean48183 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: michigan Posts: 1,577	That hermit is on its way to becoming one bad dude. If you had a big predator fish only I would say this bad boy would be a great clean up crew but in a reef you are asking for trouble. I had one that was the size of a fist and i put him in my fuge and he treacherized it. Moved huge rocks around and shifted all the CC from one side of the tank to the other. Taking him back to the lfs and trade him for a scarlett. They are the only ones I really trust in a reef.

11/23/2006, 11:45 PM	#6
Gordonious Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Newark DE Posts: 3,393	You tell me this now... When I'm hundreds of miles from my tank! Sigh. It still frustrates the heck out of me that I have not been able to identify half of my inverts to species. I think I will write a letter to a marine biologist who was once my professor.(works with crustaceans for a living) You can laugh if you want, but sadly I have too big of a heart to take anything back to the store and actually I bought this guy a long time ago. I am not sure where I got it. I will probably add him to a sump I am setting up and installing soon. Jon

11/25/2006, 11:19 AM	#7
tatedelo Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Bentonville, AR Posts: 117	It looks like a red striped hermit, they have a green variation. They are a little clumsy and grow to about 2/3 the size of a baseball. They eat all sorts of stuff. Mine ate algae, dead fish, any food that would hit the ground, literally just about anything. Mine was not aggressive, just clumsy. I would say be careful around corals because it will knock it over anything that isn't bolted to the tank.