Electric Blue Hermit ate my Green Star Polyp??????

alfieh0 · Jan 23, 2021

Today i saw my electric blue hermit crab on my green star polyp frag, i took him off as i could see the coral looked stressed and was all closed. Its been a good few hours since this but my green star polyp hasn't opened at all. I've just realised that my hermit may have eaten the heads off the GSP. I thought it was closed at first as it looks closed but as it hasn't opened for so long i believe the hermit has completely eaten the heads off it, it can't possibly open.

I'm posting here as have you hear of hermits doing this? What should i do, move him to my sump? Will the coral survive?

Paul B · Jan 23, 2021

More than likely that piece of polyp died or had algae growing on it. I doubt the crab would make much of a difference on a green star polyp. I have probably 20 hermit crabs with many of them 5 and 10 years old so they are very large. I also have star polyps covering much of my tank. They never in decades killed a polyp.

|Frank| · Jan 23, 2021

My hermits are always in the gsp. They're just doin their job. Gsp should open up within a couple days

alfieh0 · Jan 23, 2021

Paul B said:
More than likely that piece of polyp died or had algae growing on it. I doubt the crab would make much of a difference on a green star polyp. I have probably 20 hermit crabs with many of them 5 and 10 years old so they are very large. I also have star polyps covering much of my tank. They never in decades killed a polyp.

If the hermit hasn't killed it then i must not be dead, and just needs more time to open back up again. As it was looking open and healthy just before. Thanks for the reassurance.