Normal Behavior?

So after I turned off my lights for the night, my girlfriend was looking at my tank and told me that one of my frags fell out of the rock (I haven't super glued them to the rock yet because I don't have any super glue and I want to find where I like the look of them the best).

Anyways, I went over to the tank and saw that it was my tricolor birdsnest that fell! This is an awesome frag I got from a buddy but then I noticed that my scarlet hermit crab actually was trying to pull the entire frag into the live rock and do something with it!

Is this normal behavior for a scarlet hermit? Should I get rid of him? None of my blue legged hermits have picked at the corals. What should I do?

 

This morning I came downstairs and I saw that my roommate had his hands in the tank (we went into the tank together so this doesn't really bother me). I told him about the incident last night and he said that he was picking the frag off the sand again! Once I looked at the tank I realized there was an entire nub missing from my tricolor birdsnest...the damn crab ate some of my frag!

What should I do? Should I watch and see if it does it again and then remove him from the tank? How much abuse can the tricolor birdnest take before it dies? Its a really cool frag and I want it to grow in my tank.

 

i didnt think scarlet hermits did any damage to any coral?? If the nub has gone missing, it may have deterioated from the stress of being thrown about in the tank. SPS can be funny like that....

 

I definitely saw the crab last night eating and nawing on the frag! It ate about a 1/4 in. of frag. I am thinking about tossing him if he continues this behavior once my roommate leaves so he doesn't know (it is his $3 crab).

 

its not red and hairy with white spots? (the crab)

 

No I know about the Hairy Mexican Hermit crab. It is just a normal small scarlet hermit crab.

 

in that case, its unusual behaviour IMO

 

And of course now I cannot find him in the tank. I will have to wait until tonight and try to pull him out then.