New hermits

[Harry]

I received my new shipment of dwarf hermit crabs today. They arrived in very drab, black Nerite shells. In the first 30 minutes, one of them swapped out to one of the colorful shells I had provided. I'm hoping they all switch out. I know Mustafa is not in favor of these crabs, as he believes they will starve on the Opae feeding regimen. But I've had a few in one of my smaller tanks and they seem to feed off the algae between feedings, just like the Opae.

[Rob in Puyallup]

I feed my opae ula daily... A very small amount of finely ground TetraColor flakes. Enough gets to the bottom of the tanks for the hermits. The opae ula in these tanks have lived happy and healthy lives for over 18 months. Breeding like crazy, too.

[Harry]

I also feed by crushing color flakes into a fine powder. But I only feed weekly or every ten days or so.

My new hermits have gone wild over the colorful nerite shells in the tank. I have eight dwarf hermits in the new 10-gallon tanks and at least five of them have changed shells within the first two days.

[Mustafa]

I know Mustafa is not in favor of these crabs, as he believes they will starve on the Opae feeding regimen. But I've had a few in one of my smaller tanks and they seem to feed off the algae between feedings, just like the Opae.

I'm actually indifferent as far as the hermit crabs go....they can interesting animals in their own right. All I am saying is that it's not optimal, and likely to be detrimental for the shrimp if you want to keep them Petshrimp-style (ok...let's just call my method that from now on...I'm tired of describing it every time I want to talk about it...it needs a name ). Also, picking does not equal feeding. Hermit crabs pick at stuff constantly...if they actually get to eat what they pick at is a different story.