destructive hermit crabs?

[fmj05]

i just started my aquarium about 2 months ago. i got two blue leg hermits with one piece of live rock and i bought another 2 red legs ones from my LFS. i have noticed though that they seem to be eating all the cool stuff off my live rock. i use to have all these brilliant dark purple colors and little spike sprouting stuff all over the rock as well as a number of tiny starfish. but the amount of everything has been reduced. i also have two damsels and a turbo snail. my question is do you think its the hermits eating everything and is my only solution to get ride of them.

[PhotoJohn]

no, they are reef safe and you want them. I have over 100 in my 46 bow front reef. They are great fun and I feed them silver sides ever week or two. They shouldnt hurt anything good in your tank

[fat walrus]

The stuff reduced is the natural die off on the live rocks.

[lReef lKeeper]

the stuff missing is the die off of the Live Rock, as Fat said. and the cycle that you went through probably did not help to keep things alive either. give it time and your rock will be even more full of life than it was before.