Halloween Hermit ?

[BigDysonPleco]

Hi anyone got any info on Halloweens, How big in how long and how long do they live. I have two and they are great much more active than the red legs but have heard they grow huge?

 

[seffieuk]

to TFF and the salty side of the forum

You are very lucky and have certainly come to the right place for a good answer as we have an expert within out midsts, Donya, hoepfully she will be along soon to answer your question. But in lay terms I believe there are several different types of Hallowean, some of which do grow large. I love em myself, have five in my tank

Anyways, I'm sure Donya will pop in and put you straight, but in the mean time how about starting a journel where you can introduce yourself and tell us all about your tank, we are a nosey lot

Seffie x

 

[BigDysonPleco]

Thanks for welcome, Im new to marine and have 120l nano tank, have kept tropical for years and have a 2ool community Discus tank.
Have had tank for 6 months and is now stocked to limit so am now saving for way bigger tank as Ive become obsessed with the Marine side to the hobby as it is sooooo much more amazing than freshwater although I still love my 2ool tank.
Stock list 120l marine

1 x Wild Clown
1 x Biocolor Dwarf Angel
1 x Dracula Goby
1 x Tiger Pistol Shrimp
1 x Firefish red
2 x Halloween Hermit
1 x Cleaner shrimp
1 x Fireshrimp
1 x Blue leg hermit
2 x Electric blue hermit
1 x Red leg hermit
2 x Trochus Snails
1 x Red Flame scallop

Thank you for any info on my stock level or Compatability of fish.

Ps have 2 small corals was 3 but not yet clever enough to keep Flowerpot coral which died, boohoo it was beautiful am gutted.
Lost no fish since start, water parameters are spot on but did lose a few snails which died a couple of days after purchase?
All fish are in great health and I love them, the Tiger and Dracula pair are amazing and I could watch for hours.

Have noticed lots of black and white striped starfishlegs sticking out of hard coral will they ever come out? what are type they?
Also some legs are brown and red striped?
Yep that about covers it, Cheers.
Also

 

[seffieuk]

I had a Dracula goby, lovely fish, lost him in my big tank move

Are you going to get a mate for the clown, one always looks so lonely?

SEffie x

ps dont forget photos

 

[BigDysonPleco]

Would love to get another but worried about overstocking, defo when I upgrade saving up me pennies, have space for 400l roll on xmas.
Will get some pics.

 

[seffieuk]

1 x Wild Clown
1 x Biocolor Dwarf Angel
1 x Dracula Goby
1 x Firefish red
of days after purchase?.

Have noticed lots of black and white striped starfishlegs sticking out of hard coral will they ever come out? what are type they?
Also some legs are brown and red striped?

Woops, sorry, just noticed I didnt answer your question they are small brittle stars, they do sometimes come out, I was at my sister, Trods recently when her tuxedo urchin decided to start spawning - the brittle stars came out for a feast, there were loads of them However they dont usually come out, they just wave their little legs, ahhh bless.

Mmmm, just taken another look at your stocking, although the dwarf angel is lovely it can reach about six inches and has been known to nibble corals So you have approx 15 inches of fish (full size) at the moment. As long as you are good with your weekly water change of approx 20% then another clown should be ok - but if it were me, i would be tempted to get rid of the angel

Seffie x

 

[Donya]

Hi anyone got any info on Halloweens, How big in how long and how long do they live. I have two and they are great much more active than the red legs but have heard they grow huge?

First up: I'm assuming you mean Ciliopagurus strigatus and not orange form Calcinus elegans.

How big: BIG. Well, perhaps not in all caps like that, but much bigger than small Clibanarius species (some of which are called red legs) and also a lot bigger than most Paguristes cadenati (also called red-legs - and the rare one of these seems to get a bit large too). Biggest ones I've seen will take 4" cone shells. This means too big to be absolutely reef safe with fragile stuff due to bulldozing and generally being rather rough with anything they're interested in.

Growth rate: seems slow, but I don't have enough info on this to give a concrete answer. Expect a molt every few weeks as usual, but don't expect a big leap in size (if any change at all) each time.

How long do they live: not a clue unfortunately. When kept in captivity they rarely seem to reach the sizes they can obtain in the wild. Whether this is stunted growth or simply premature death is an unknown to me currently. Unfortunately I fear it may be a bit of both since they are not often provided with the types of shells they want.

To give some bound estimates on hermit lifespans, three years after entering a stable adult size range seems to be the expected age for small Clibanarius species before they slow down and show symptoms of old age. This is, of course, assuming that no random accidents happen like crazy molts and such. Every time a hermit molts it risks one of those events, so that probably contributes to difficulty estimating lifespans. Anyway, larger species seem to be able to last quite a lot longer than that, especially factoring in the potentially longer time to reach the stable adult size range.

If you in fact have Calcinus elegans then...well, most of the info is the same lol. Calcinus elegans gets roughly the same size in terms of leg length at least, and they have a poorly documented life span as well. Either way though, you have a very risky stocking mixing that many hermit species - that's often a ticket to hermit wars and dead snails as soon as space, shells, and food become an issue for growing hermits.

1 x Red Flame scallop

Not to pick at stocking lists unnecessarily, but don't these guys have a really bad captive rep, let alone in a small-ish tank?

 

[BigDysonPleco]

Donya
Thanks for info on Hermits, have heard scallop hard to keep since purchase(LFS ensured they were easy heard that one before)have had for four months and seems fine but have heard they can take 6 months to starve to death.
Have been feeding direct into scallop with JBL Korall Fluid & brine shrimp a pain but hopefully will keep it well?
Dont mind criticism on stock choice just want to get it right.Is there anything more I can do to help the dude to survive?