Symbiotic relationship between Hermit and Coral?

Okay, so I have this little blue legged hermit crap (1 out of 120 i bought about a year ago) and he is on top of my little brain coral 24/7. It is the strangest thing I have ever seen! I have looked very closely and no, he is not eating the coral and the coral is not aggrivated at all with him on there. But I take him off and put him on the complete other side of the tank (70 gallon) and that little dude will back on that coral in a matter of an hour. Very strange. Any one know why this is? Sort of cute!

 

No idea but thats pretty awesome though!

 

There was a thread a couple years back on RC.

This guy had this huge sps tank with long branches of sps growing up wards. Everyday around 5 pm all the hermits would migrate up the branches and sit at the top. This did not hurt the sps. My guess is that they were getting ready for the night zooplankton to appear and then feed.

There could be some type of mucous the brain is producing. Or it may just be from a region where that is a common coral.

With all that said it could just be a very strange hermit and nothing more.

 

No idea, but that's pretty cool!

 

Yes, this little guy is definitely a strange one. He will be up there right when i got to bed and when I wake up, he's still just sittin' there. 24/7. I must take a picture!

 

Definitely get a pic!

 

My orange and black hermits will "hide" in my SPS when they molt for a few days. Corals don't seem to mind.