Murderer

[Oxymoron]

Well I have 2 blue leg hermits.
Or had I should say.... Today one of them decided to murder his buddy and steal his shell.
Should I remove the old shell? Is the aggresive hermit a risk in a reef tank?
Thanks for any input

[my2rotties]

I saw the exact same thing go down in my tank last year. I don't know if the crab that was removed out of its shell might have been dead already. I watched my clean up crew go to town on the body and the crab scuttle away with his new shell. I had tow more blue legs and they would fight and nip each others legs off... the legs would grow back. I ended up removing all my hermit crabs since they were eating my sand sifting star fish, and were browsing my corals too much.

[fishytime]

Hermit crabs are.....well.....hermit crabs.....reef safe....but not invert safe. Kinda a pain, but too cool a critter not to have in a reef IMO

[KPG007]

I had the same thing happen. What probably happened was the hermit crab out grew his shell, couldn't find a better one, so killed his buddy to get his...or he just liked the other guys better.
Once I threw in some extra (larger) shells, that didn't happen any more. You can get extra shells from your LFS, usually for free if you ask.

[paddyob]

I caught three hermits in a brawl one day. one crab holding end of one hermit, with the other holding the other end. they were spinning the middle shell trying to get it for themselves. poor guy in the middle must be dizzy! ill see if i can get the video off my phone. was super funny.

[hillegom]

Those blue legs are aggressive. I had 3. Down to one. Even though there were other shells of similar size, they seem to prefer each others. Mean! Good looking, but as you say, murderous. Is that a word? lol

[Oxymoron]

Thanks for the replies all.
I guess since he's the only one left I don't really have to worry about him.

[paddyob]

Originally Posted by Oxymoron

Thanks for the replies all.
I guess since he's the only one left I don't really have to worry about him.

Just ensure you have a few different shells in an open place. in time he may try for your snails. i did lose a snail in the past.

[spreerider]

my blue legs are good except for with margarita snails, they love their shells so i went from 8 -2 snails now, but the crabs have never killed eachother, could be because i have about 100 shells in my tank.

my scarlet hermit changes shells every couple days then changes back to the old one, no idea why.

[fishytime]

Ive got tons of extra shells in the tank and have watched a hermie kill a snail and then not even try the shell on for size. They are highly opportunistic.