Aquarist - the Regulator

Starting a Marine Tank VI

Written by George J. Reclos Monday, 30 September 2002 00:00

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A new male Salaria pavo (Peacock blennie) - unfortunately, although we were able to find the same rockpool, the resident was not a female but one more male. Housing it with the bigger male is just out of the question. The bigger male, already in the tank, made it quite clear that the newcomer wouldn't survive. Furthermore, it showed increased aggression against the red triplefin blennie which was also removed to another tank.

 

The beautiful hermit crab - a herbivore doing an excellent job as a scavenger. Will attack small shells successfully but in the end it also attacked a really big shell proving that its algae main dishes can definitely be enriched.

 

I was almost sure that my hermit crab would deal with all the shells in my tank. I had already seen it eating some of them but since this was done only occasionally I  decided there was no reason to take any countermeasures. After all, it made sense since both animals were actually competing for the same food (algae) which, although abundant in my tank could seem to them like a limited food source. I was never prepared for what took place after the introduction of some new shells in my tank. The shells seemed a bit larger than the older ones so I figured that perhaps they could resist the hermit crab's attack. After a couple of days, I saw one of those new shells attached on the top of the crab's shell - it just seemed natural to me. However, several hours later I found out that the crab had allowed it to walk close to the opening of its own shell and then managed to get under its protective cover and get hold of its soft body. At the beginning it was almost impossible to see who was eating whom. After the week long dinner was over the empty shell and the walking crab told us the epilogue.

         

The whole process took several days to be completed. Each day the attacking animal was getting deeper and deeper in the shell. After five days the hermit crab had almost taken the whole shell inside its own. I hope it will leave the rest of the shells in peace. Although mainly a herbivore, the hermit crab proves to be an omnivore with a preference to animal food. Since I know what the predator looks for I will just add some mussel pieces to the everyday feeding regime.