Hermit crabs eating bristle worms

[StackTrayce]

Previously regularly saw multiple 2"+ bristle worms, especially during feeding. Added 6 total blue-legged hermits to my 20g and I haven't noticed them since.
Do hermit crabs eat bristle worms? How aggressively or completely? I'm not trying to rid tank of bristle worms and actually kinda liked them ;)

Should I be worried about these hermit crabs causing other issues? I feed a very small amount of marine pellet to ensure there is something for them, but expect they could scavenge just fine and may stop or limit the marine pellet feeding.

Pic from early August - been dealing w/ cyano but getting better. Excuse poor pic, usually see the worms under dim lighting.

 

[StackTrayce]

4 of the hermit crabs are very small (<1/2") and 2 are around an inch. Planning on adding more snails as part of sand bed replacement soon, but don't want to have the snails eaten by crabs within a month.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Do hermit crabs eat bristle worms? How aggressively or completely? I'm not trying to rid tank of bristle worms and actually kinda liked them ;)

Should I be worried about these hermit crabs causing other issues? I feed a very small amount of marine pellet to ensure there is something for them, but expect they could scavenge just fine and may stop or limit the marine pellet feeding.

They might on occasion, but they almost certainly won't clear the bristle worms out of the tank completely. I'd guess your worms are just hiding more (possibly out of fear of predation).

The hermits probably won't cause other issues for you; some people report hermits attacking snails, but others report no issues with that. Any snail attacks may be related to lack of shells, lack of food, or food that doesn't meet all the nutritional needs of the crabs.

If there is extra food from when you feed the fish, then you probably don't need to feed the hermits, but - despite them eating algae growing in the tank and whatever bits of detritus they can find - if there isn't enough extra food, you will want to feed them a little to keep them healthy. (Remember, they're omnivorous, so both they'll need by meaty foods and algal foods.)

 

[StackTrayce]

You were exactly correct! I saw two ~2" ones during a feeding and then a bigger one a day later. I hadn't seen any in ~5 days and was looking for explanations. Thanks for the extra notes on hermit crabs. We've got 6 hermits and and an emerald in 20g and I was worrying it might be too much.