Is my Hermit crab reef safe?

I have this little hermit crab (shell no bigger than 2 cm) in my micro tank.  He has blue legs with little specks of red or orange on the knuckles.  (Anybody know what kind he is?) I've been watching him peck at my live rock.  Is he cleaning it or eating the good stuff?    He doesnt spend much time on the sand.  He likes to climb up high...my little king of the hill!

 

Oh, here's a pic of my little micro reef.....

 

Karma for a nano reef 8) I don't have enough patience and I make too many mistakes. If your hermit is a little blue legged variety chances are he'll be just fine. I have about 50 of them and they're only interested in dead stuff or shrimp pellets, just scavengers mostly.
Good luck and that's a nice tank.
Jim

 

Sweet! Sounds like blue legged hermits....should be OK until they get larger...and even then, most are OK, but in a mini reef..I would keep and eye on him

Mine mostly like to crawl over my green star polyps, which makes them go in for a while. But other than that...they are
fine.

They are also supposed to eat cyanobacteria...mine don't

 

oh, that's really nicelooking. Karma for you.

And I would say, your hermit is safe, sounds like a blue leg hermit to me.

 

wow, that's three posts in one minute
And I was the slowest ... hmpf :/

 

Slow is good, Or so I've been told :8)
J

 

Thanks for the Karma and the posts. I love this shizit! A great community here and I look forward to being one who can give advice rather that receive it!!!!

 

You will get there!

Altho, there are always questions!

 

From the sounds of the crab it is likely to be a blue legged hermit (Clibanarius tricolor) which is a native of florida, which on the whole is reef safe!

You want to try my one out though! It is similar to the red reef hermit, but is brown. He does not damage things intentionally but will throw over things to see what is underneat. If its not tied down and all that!

But the good thing is you would need a microscope to find any algae (except for shaving brush type - he dont like that!)