Disappearing Hermits

[lebloom]

I have a 75gal FOWLR tank and have noticed my blue legs are diminishing. I have also noticed that there are more worms in my tank now. I assume they are Bristle worms, they are pink and segmented but small. I had a few red legs but only find 1 at the most any more. The is only 1 clown in the tank at the moment.

I have approx. 40-50 lbs. of LR along with 170lbs of aragonite in my established tank. I just purchased a nice piece of LR with quite a lot of caulerpa growing on it and it still is growing.

But, I am still not sure of whats thinning out my hermit population. Is or isn't the bristle worm a bad thing? I read different things out there. Some say bad and some say good for a tank. Just what is it and are they killing my hermits?????

 

[Satchmo]

I doubt very much the bristles are killing your hermits. Are you sure they're dying? Are you finding their empty shells? Hermits can be pretty cryptic. They're small enough to disappear into the rocks for quite some time IME. Also when they molt, they'll go into hiding for a few days. Do you have extra varied shells for them to change into? If not, they'll wander out and die naked.

How many did you start with? The scarlets are a little more secretive than the blues IME, and come out more towards the end of the photoperiod and at night. Have you checked on them after lights out? I have only 1 scarlet in my 10g and several times I would have bet the farm that he was dead- hadn't seen him in weeks. Then I'll find him sitting on a rock plucking away at detritus like nothing happened. I wouldn't panic just yet. For little hermits, there's far more places in a 75g tank to do their thing than you or I know about.