Hawaiian Dwarf Zebra Hermits = BAD News

They are far from being so called reef safe. I have been out of the
picture for a few days laid up with pretty bad sinus infection, so
fish etc have been getting the minimum amount of attention, which
amounts to a quick check of inhabitant numbers, water temps, top of
and feed one time a day..........Well today I felt somewhat better,
and decided to pay more attention to the tanks.........Wow, the one
tank that had these zebra dwarf hermits in loopks like a bomb went off
in it. I set down just in time to watch two zebras basically tearing
the shell apart of a smaller blue legged hermit, and fighting over the
inhabitant of that shell........Its not like they have not been fed,
as they have been fed as much as before, but they managed to open up a
nice large feather duster, gnawed, scraped & gouged coraline growth
off a large percentage of the liverock, have the end of my 2 cocoa
worms tubes all chipped up, one pretty darn bad looking with large
pieces of rthe tubes end missing.......I then noticed I now only have
two hermits in the tank anymore, and they are the two zebra
dwarfs........all the blue legs are history, I also could not find my
emerald crab...but I eventualy found some pieces of him, yet another
victim of these zebra hermits......

Needless to say, I removed them both to a small plain sand bottom pico
tank, until I decide what I am going to do with them.......I won't
even give these guys the benefit of staying in my undesireables tank.
I know they are only doing what comes natural for what zebra hermits
naturally do, but how do they ever come up with what makes a critter
reef safe is a pretty braod statement. Evidently coraline, hermits,
emerald crabs , feather dusters etc are not considered reef inhab.s
only corals are taken into consideration.......
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The original frugal ponder ! Koi-ahoi mates....

Sorry to hear about your disaster. I have a bunch of those little guys.
I've never had any problems that I've noticed. I even have a bunch of
feather dusters and inverts that seem to be doing fine with them too. Are
they very big crabs?

Susan
"Roy" wrote in message
...
They are far from being so called reef safe. I have been out of the
picture for a few days laid up with pretty bad sinus infection, so
fish etc have been getting the minimum amount of attention, which
amounts to a quick check of inhabitant numbers, water temps, top of
and feed one time a day..........Well today I felt somewhat better,
and decided to pay more attention to the tanks.........Wow, the one
tank that had these zebra dwarf hermits in loopks like a bomb went off
in it. I set down just in time to watch two zebras basically tearing
the shell apart of a smaller blue legged hermit, and fighting over the
inhabitant of that shell........Its not like they have not been fed,
as they have been fed as much as before, but they managed to open up a
nice large feather duster, gnawed, scraped & gouged coraline growth
off a large percentage of the liverock, have the end of my 2 cocoa
worms tubes all chipped up, one pretty darn bad looking with large
pieces of rthe tubes end missing.......I then noticed I now only have
two hermits in the tank anymore, and they are the two zebra
dwarfs........all the blue legs are history, I also could not find my
emerald crab...but I eventualy found some pieces of him, yet another
victim of these zebra hermits......

Needless to say, I removed them both to a small plain sand bottom pico
tank, until I decide what I am going to do with them.......I won't
even give these guys the benefit of staying in my undesireables tank.
I know they are only doing what comes natural for what zebra hermits
naturally do, but how do they ever come up with what makes a critter
reef safe is a pretty braod statement. Evidently coraline, hermits,
emerald crabs , feather dusters etc are not considered reef inhab.s
only corals are taken into consideration.......
--
\\\|///
( @ @ )
-----------oOOo(_)oOOo---------------


oooO
---------( )----Oooo----------------
\ ( ( )
\_) ) /
(_/
The original frugal ponder ! Koi-ahoi mates....

Wow !
Sorry to hear. I have about 10 of these guys in my tank with no problems.
A while back I ordered 50 from Drfostersmith.com
20 blue, 20 red and 10 zebra. I removed a few for misbehaving. (like
sitting on my leather
and picking at it for hours). but for the most part they have just been
doing there job.

I have also seen then attack snails, eat them and move into their shell.
But this is the nature of the hermit, if there aren't any larger extra
shells laying around
they'll go and find one.

Do you ever feed the crabs ? After a while they eat themselves out of house
and home.
I can imagine them getting a little more adventurous looking for food if
their hungry.
They like those algae wafers from Hikari.




"Roy" wrote in message
...
They are far from being so called reef safe. I have been out of the
picture for a few days laid up with pretty bad sinus infection, so
fish etc have been getting the minimum amount of attention, which
amounts to a quick check of inhabitant numbers, water temps, top of
and feed one time a day..........Well today I felt somewhat better,
and decided to pay more attention to the tanks.........Wow, the one
tank that had these zebra dwarf hermits in loopks like a bomb went off
in it. I set down just in time to watch two zebras basically tearing
the shell apart of a smaller blue legged hermit, and fighting over the
inhabitant of that shell........Its not like they have not been fed,
as they have been fed as much as before, but they managed to open up a
nice large feather duster, gnawed, scraped & gouged coraline growth
off a large percentage of the liverock, have the end of my 2 cocoa
worms tubes all chipped up, one pretty darn bad looking with large
pieces of rthe tubes end missing.......I then noticed I now only have
two hermits in the tank anymore, and they are the two zebra
dwarfs........all the blue legs are history, I also could not find my
emerald crab...but I eventualy found some pieces of him, yet another
victim of these zebra hermits......

Needless to say, I removed them both to a small plain sand bottom pico
tank, until I decide what I am going to do with them.......I won't
even give these guys the benefit of staying in my undesireables tank.
I know they are only doing what comes natural for what zebra hermits
naturally do, but how do they ever come up with what makes a critter
reef safe is a pretty braod statement. Evidently coraline, hermits,
emerald crabs , feather dusters etc are not considered reef inhab.s
only corals are taken into consideration.......
--
\\\|///
( @ @ )
-----------oOOo(_)oOOo---------------


oooO
---------( )----Oooo----------------
\ ( ( )
\_) ) /
(_/
The original frugal ponder ! Koi-ahoi mates....

I also have had issue with the Zebras, but only when they get larger.
The become more aggresive as they get bigger and they tend to develop
new affinities, such as tube worms. I have found a good pile of larger
shells helps from having them attach other crabs but in the end they
all met my stomotopod. HmmmmHmmmmGood.

I had the same problem with my zebras- ate my green polops , and killed a
few blue legs.

"Sandbag" wrote in message
oups.com...
I also have had issue with the Zebras, but only when they get larger.
The become more aggresive as they get bigger and they tend to develop
new affinities, such as tube worms. I have found a good pile of larger
shells helps from having them attach other crabs but in the end they
all met my stomotopod. HmmmmHmmmmGood.