Do you see a future problem

[radiolotek]

I have a med. thin stripe hermit crab and I just added a decorator crab and the two of them briefly kind of quarreled you could say. They rolled around for a sec. and went seperate ways. Do you think I should remove one of them? Also is the decorator-spider crab reef safe? I am going to be switching to a reef set-up as soon as I get some more sand and my new lights in about a week? I know the thin stripe isn't considered reef safe but I got him out of a friends small reef tank and he had no problems with him. He just ate the food the fish did that made it to the bottom.

 

[radiolotek]

Anyone have an answer? Also I wanted an opinion on feeding. My tank has
1 flamehawk
1 med/large sweetlips
1 med thin stripe hermit
1 med decorator-spider
12 nassurus snails
7 turbos
12 misc. Hermits
I am feeding 1 small pinch of flake in the morning and 1 small block of fozen mysis shrimp at night. What do you all think? Too much or too little? The sweetlips always look like he's hungry but isn't getting thinner at all. Some food makes it to the bottom but the crabs and stuff get it real quick. Also any opinions on different stuff to feed them?

 

[greggti]

I have heard that decorator crabs are not that reef safe, cause they might damage corals trying to attach them to there shells. Also I would trade in the sweetlips. He could be a future problem...a big,big,big problem.

 

[radiolotek]

Why would the sweetlips become a problem. My lfs (which doesn't mean crap so I've found out) said there would be no problem.

 

[greggti]

Well mainly because they can grow to lengths of almost 2 feet(this is assuming that it is a harlequin). In my opinion this makes them unsuitable for anything but the largest home aquarium. Any fish that grows that large demands heavy feeding and in turn has a detrimental effect on water quality, which in a reef is no good. So what is a comical, beautiful juvenile grows into a drab extremely large eating machine(very sloppy eaters). So I would trade him in or plan on building a reef in excess of 200 gallons, and do very frequent large water changes, and make sure filtration is top notch.

 

[radiolotek]

Crap I didn't know they got that big. I do plan on a tank that big but not for a while. That bums me out cause its prety.

 

[greggti]

Originally Posted by Radiolotek
Crap I didn't know they got that big. I do plan on a tank that big but not for a while. That bums me out cause its prety.
yeah, the lfs probably forgot to mention that. Fish like harlequin sweetlips, in my opinion, should be left on the reef.