Will a large hermit become food?

fishycouple

fishycouple

Member
I previously asked about cleanup crew for agressive setup. The consensus was eventually they will become food.
I have a 4" Lionfish, a 3" Huma Huma and a 3" Clown Trigger in a 88 Gallon (custom made).
The filtration is 3" live sand with about 75 lbs of live rock. Also a 20 gallon sump with bio balls. There is a prefilter so the balls are pretty clean.
These guys are very messy eaters, and I have recently discovered the high nitrate medium the frozen shrimp are packaged in. My nitrates are kinda high about 15, while ammonia and nitrites are zero. I do regular water changes of 5 gallons every two weeks.
I only feed every other day for about 3 minutes or as long as it takes for the triggers to eat two frozen cubes usually one each of trigger food and shrimp mysis shrimp) and the Lion to eat 3-4 thawed silversides.
Anyway, I was wondering if I put in a couple of large (like 2" or so) Hermit crabs, would they be large enough to protect themselves against the fish? If so, I would think they would help clean the excess food.
Thank you for your advice.
FishyCouple
 
murray bmf

murray bmf

Member
My local fish store has a 200+ gallon agressive display setup with a lion, porky puffer, some triggers (not sure what kind) etc.. and they had a huge hermit, by huge I meen the size of a soccer ball, he lasted a couple of months but eventually got eaten (by who is unknown). They also have a counch, same size that is still alive in the tank. All the fish in the tank are pretty good size, 6+inches at least.
 
luckyk0505

luckyk0505

Member
I had four 4" hermit crab in my aggressive set up before..
end up being food for my clown trigger and
miniantus grouper
 
harlequin

harlequin

Member
In this case size doesnt matter heheh especially when you are dealing with two species of fish who gnaw on rocks to keep their teeth filed down. I think your hermit will still be lunch. On the bright side I wouldnt worry about your lion eating them, although i would be seriously concerned about the triggers going psychotic on the lion at random and doing serious damage. A lion cannot stand long against triggers.
 
fishycouple

fishycouple

Member
Hmm, not sure what happened. I composed a reply and it disappeared. I'll try again>
Thanks for the advice. How would a star do? Maybe a sand sifter or a Brittle? Would the triggers eat them too?
The Triggers and the Lion leave each other totally alone, I guess it's because they eat totally different foods, therefore there is no competition between them.
I had a conch (not sure what kind) about 2" long, and one day found it upside down and empty. I thought it might make it because he pulled inside his shell so quickly.
By the way, When I changed from reef tank (corals) to agressive, I did so because I had imported a (huge) family of flatworms (hidden on a coral or piece of rock) into my tank. I finally gave up and returned all of the corals to the lfs, where the owner gave them freshwater dips and put them into non-contaminated tanks. I put the Trigger babys (about 1-1/2" long) into the now FOWLR tank. I feed every other day, so they always act hungry. After about 3 months of their constantly grazing on the rocks, Voila!, no more flatworms.
Maybe I should suggest this solution to the Reef-keepers, on their forum. LOL!
The triggers have always left the remaining Yellow Polyps in the tank completely alone for some reason.
Anyway, Thanks for your advice.
I think I'll try a big Hermit, maybe as large as the Triggers, unless you experts think the fish might leave a star alone.
FishyCouple
 
dragracer

dragracer

Member
Well, this doesn't help with your Clown Trigger or you Lion, but my Huma Huma teams up with my large hermit and then eat shrimp together. They have been a team, and I don't beleive the Huma Huma will ever go after the Hermit.........plus the hermit bit the Huma once and let him know he wasn't taking Huma Huma S%$T
 
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