missing crabs

[danny zubot]

So after ripping down my old tank I only found about 7-8 hermit crabs. I know that I should have had more than 25 in there, so where did they go? I've had many fish over the past year but none that are known to eat hermits. Do they just get old and die?

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Sometimes larger hermits will cannibalize on smaller hermits or more aggressive ones will kill passive ones for their shell. With hermits & snails, I always tend to get more than I need in expectation for the attrition or losses.

Anthony

[danny zubot]

Do you think my dwarf lionfish might be a culprit? I've seen them eat shrimp but a hermit sounds a bit hard to handle. Plus I've only had him back for 2 weeks and he eats frozen now.

[rickjames]

Are there any empty shells lying around, or are they gone too? I know that periodically my hermits get "evicted" by other larger hermits. I will see one hermit with his claws in another shell pulling as hard as he can for hours, then the next day there will be an empty shell! :confused:

[danny zubot]

I've always had lots of extras laying around so I can't really tell. I thought that if there were enough extras they wouldn't fight.

[rickjames]

I don't trust them hermits, they are nasty guys. I think if you are wearing a hat they want, even if there are lots of other hats, they will still end up with your hat on their head! :razz:

I have one particular shell that i recognize because it is an unusual shape. There have been at least 3 different crabs with it on, because it went from a blue crab, to a red one, to another blue one! :lol:

[Shy_Koi]

I just caught my skunk cleaner shrimp red handed yesterday.
Have had the same 8 hermit crabs (blueleg and scarlet mix) for the past year and noticed that most were mia lately, with just their empty shells on the sandbed.

Went to feed the tank yesterday a.m., and saw my cleaner shrimp with what I thought was a hermit crab molt, but the molt was waving it's claws at the shrimp! :eek:

I've had this cleaner shrimp for over a year, and it gets target fed daily with mysis, krill, flake and/or pellet.

Not sure what to think??? Hopefully it was an isolated incident, and the unfortunate crab was simply caught during a molt...

~Tamara