white spotted hermit crab Help

[Huly]

I went by an LFS to grab a couple hermits and I saw a gorgeous orange one. They told me he was a Halloween Hermit but we figured out he is a White Spotted hermit. We also learned he is not reef safe and can get huge and attack fish coral etc. I am scared to return him back to the LFS since they already did not know what he is and I am a little attached to him as his personality is is awesome and so what do I do? I am still learning SW and I am not sure what to do. Suggestions?

 

[_Alex_]

we got one the exact same way you did..... ours got up to 6" before we lost him after 2 years... but had a local reefer that had one got up to 10"

main thing is get plenty or shells bigger than what he is in now to move into, if you want fish in the tank i reccommend fish that swim a lot and not botom dwellers... damsels, chromis be a good start, no clowns as they will sleep on the sand a lot of times. if you plan to keep him dont plan on adding any corals as he will destroy them. doing weekly water changes with a quality salt will keep your parameters in check for him to molt properly. feed him silver sides, table shrimp, krill, algae sheets and even large New life spectrum pellets. feed atleast every other day something meaty as they will go searching for food. one we had killed a 2" diameter emerald crab and ate it.

ill post some pics of the one we had in a minute, his name was Big Red

 

[_Alex_]

here is a shot when we first got him and didnt know any better

this one is about 6 months to a year later after beign moved into his own tank

few more random shots

this is the tank we built for him a 40B made lots of caves and he was all over the place

thats all i can find at the moment

 

[Huly]

TY we already have 4 small clowns and 3I chromis. Do you reccomend rehoming him or returning him? Did he get more aggressive as he got bigger?

 

[_Alex_]

you have 4 small clowns in the same tank?? what size tank do you have, as they will most likely pair up and kill one another at some point depending on tank size... and he was aggressive at all sizes lol a little milder if you keep him fed well, but killed 3 large tubo snails in 2 days and ate them all.....