Halloween Hermits eating my polyps??

[Lakeshow24]

Hey all,

 

back into the reefing hobby after a little 20 year break with a 10g desktop…few fish, lots of inverts. 
 

just got a cleaning crew from reefcleaners.org (great btw) which included a couple of Halloween hermits. 
 

I could be wrong but it looks as though one of them is chewing through my little GSP mat? Am I crazy? Do I need to get rid of him? Any help would be appreciated! 

[seabass]

I believe that they are typically considered reef safe; although they can kill snails for their shells.  Also, crabs in general are opportunistic feeders, so I can't guarantee that it isn't sampling your GSP if it were hungry.  However, it's fairly unlikely that it was eating healthy polyps.  It was probably just cleaning up some left over food, or picking at some algae or pods in the mat.  Its presence could irritate the coral, causing the polyps to temporarily retract (but causing no permanent damage).

[Lakeshow24]

@seabass thank you for sharing that with me, I’m headed back to my house today o hope that you’re right!