feeding hermits?

[pastina]

can i feed scarlet hermit crabs algae wafers? its I.S.O brand algae wafers and i use it for my fw fish but is says can be fed to marine too.
will the hermits eat this? theres not much left on the live rock for them and im afraid they will starve
the tank is now 9 days old, amonia has dropped to zero
i have no algae growth yet, i keep the light on for 12 hours (2x40w pc)
i have live sand also which i see all tunnels going through it. i have tons of amphipods. i dont want this tank to starve to death
so if i throw in an algae wafer will the crabs take to it? its basically spirulina algae
i have shrimp pellets but they make a mess so i kinda dont want to put that in there
oh tank is 10g with 15 lbs live rock and 20 lbs live sand
i have no fish

[ski1297]

A scarlet hermit crab scavenges animal matter and algae. So you should not need to feed it. I know that tank is new but they should be ok. I would give it some time before any new things go in, about 3 weeks. Its hard to take it slow but its a good thing to do. It will save you a lot of money. What do you want to do with the tank?

[pastina]

well i did a boo boo, i put half a peice of wafer in the tank and it zipped fast in the current before it landed under a rock. it is now wedged and i cant get it out.
will aphipods eat the wafer? i hope it doesnt rot too bad under there
i dont plan on fish i just want corals and inverts, like a few sexy shrimp or a pistol and maybe a banded serpent star.

[ski1297]

I would try to take it out if you do not see him eating it. I think pods would eat the wafer but that would take a very long time.

[Petunia]

i say don't feed them... you'll end up with high nitrates if you don't have a skimmer. they will scavange for their food and won't starve.