Scarlet hermit eating a new hammer

[jhatfield]

I just cought my scarlet hermit eating my new hammer coral. Now I have a chicken or egg question; was the crab attracted to dying polyps or did it cause the polyps to die? I ask because he seemed to focus on the two polyps that were retracted. Granted, he may have caused the polyps to retract in the first place and I just didnt see it.

Photo below shows the day before discovered what was going on. When I got home from work yesterday I found the two retracted polyps completely eaten away and the hermit making his way back to the rock work.

Is this common or even heard of?

This is the second euphilia that has been attacked by inverts. The previous culprits were peppermnt shrimp who munched a nice torch down to a bare skeleton. The shrimp are... no longer with us.

 

[sbash]

I have had hermits eat my corals before. When I catch them, I banish them to the forbidden zone.