Is this a molt?

[inigomontoya]

I received an invert order on Monday. I was very careful when acclimating: All shrimp are fine, corals doing well, and snails all alive and kicking, but I think my scarlet hermits are dying off. Three of the shells havent moved at all, and there is a carcass laying in the bottom of the tank and has been there since Wed morning. It is very dark, deep red and has antennea on it so am I to assume it is not a molt? Also, should I leave him in the tank because it looks like noone wants to snack on him..
Also, is there anything else out there that eats bubble algae? Thanks,
Paula

 

[steelchromis]

A pic would help distingush whether it is a molt or not. But either way get rid of it, especially if your cleanup crew won't touch it. Also what are the other animals in the tank? Do you have blueleg hermits mixed with your scarlets? If so this is a bad idea in that the bluelegs are more aggressive and will kill the scarlets.

 

[inigomontoya]

Only 12 turbo snails, one dragon goby and I bought 6 scarlet hermits. I thought the blue's looked cool but they had a lot of negatives on this board. I wanted to buy conch's but I have CC.

 

[bang guy]

Hmmm what's a Dragon Goby?

 

[escape2thewater]

I have some blues and scarlets mixed together. I didnt do it on purpose but had some blues that got mixed in with other stuff. ( hitchikers on coral, yes its true I got 2 blues this way. And some mixed in with regular red legged hermits) They have been together for a month now and I havent had any problems so far. The blues are definately much more aggresive though, when I first added the scarlets some of the blues that where already in there attacked, or looks like they were attacking, the scarlet, But the scarlets held there ground and I havent had any issues since. Just an FYI.
Kyle

 

[inigomontoya]

Here is my Dragon Goby (Amblygobius phalaena), I read they are widely distributed throughout the Indo-pacific.

 

[inigomontoya]

another picture:

 

[bang guy]

Cool fish. I thought it might be eating snails & hermits but it doesn't look like it's equipped for that.
Thanks for sharing, I've never seen one.

 

[moonrs]

Some other names for your Goby are Sleeper Goby, Banded Goby, and Brown-striped Goby. Incidently, My LFS sold me my Goby as a "Dragon" goby also. I was not able to find very much infomation about it under that name, so I don't think it's very widely used (compared to the other names I mentioned). Anyway, my goby is quite a landscaper. He's moved huge amounts of sand around my small 30 gallon tank. He currently has two "burrows". Aside from occasionally showering the lower inhabitants of the tank with sand, he's a fascinating fish. The neatest/strangest thing about him currently is that he's recently become best buds with my newest fish, a yellow tang. They follow each other everywhere (mostly the tang seems to follow the goby), and constantly swim close by each other, sometimes even rubbing their fins together as they swim. They'll duck underneath each other for food, without any aggression! The Goby even tolerates the tang in his burrow (at least as far as the tang can fit his taller body into the small hole!).
As far as the problem you're having with bubble algae, emerald Mithrex crabs love to eat the stuff. All the bubble algae I had (which was alot) was gone within a week or two. Well, good luck with your fish. Moonrs