Do these hermit crabs actually eat red slime?

[Mysterz]

MEXICAN DWARF HERMIT CRABS

Was wondering if they really do eat red slime algae? I have a red slime problem in my tank. An old system, its been running for about 4 yrs....

[Lamorak]

My mexican dwarf/red tipped hermits never seemed to touch the red slime, when I had a small outbreak. Turbo and Astrea snails didn't seem to like it either.

I just eventually got tired of the ugly red mat on my sand and glass. I took a turkey baster and sucked it off the glass and sand. It comes up pretty easily and was a quick fix. I followed up by reducing the amount of food I was throwing into the tank and the small patches that had been left behind disappeared.

I do suspect that a recent hitchhiking snail may have liked eating what was left of the red slime algae and managed to get rid of those small leftover patches. I forget the proper name, but I think it's a stomatella (sp?). Looks like a slug with a thumbnail looking shell. Keep in mind that I never witnessed this snail eating the red slime algae. Just that the appearance of that snail and the disappearance of the red slime patches seemed to occur at the same time.

[DaveC]

I don't think there is really anything that eats red slime, you may see things crawl over it but I doubt they are eating it....you need to reduce feedings and anything else that would cause phosphates, increase water circulation to any low or dead areas, and suck up as much of it as you can, it will go away...


DaveC