Hermit Crabs eat Green Polyps???

[bdhough]

Do hermit crabs eat green polyps??? Or corals for that matter? Or will they just eat the dead ones? Several of my hermit crabs have been weeding through my green polyps cluster and i just caught a blue leg eating a dead (i hope) polyp.... Will they attack the live ones?
Thanks for any insight....

 

[nm reef]

I have numerous scarlet & blue legs in my reef and I've never had damage to any of my coral from the hermits. I do see them feeding from amongst the corals...picking algae and scavenging...but never have I seen hermits eating corals of any kind. Now...some folks swear that hermits in general will munch anything and everything...maybe I just have nice ones.....

 

[iceburger]

tonight at work we found a large scarlet hermit eating a tube anemone.......

 

[bdhough]

Well. I think i've figured it out. They eat the dead ones. Or dying ones. They have gone through and eaten the lesser polyps and left the dominant ones alone. Ill have to see if they move on to the dominant polyps....