Killer Hermit Crabs

[RogersCG]

Could a hermit crab take out a Emerald Crab? I came home this evening to an Emerald Crab with it's shell removed on the bottom of my tank. I've noticed a particular blue legged hermit crab killing snails lately and he was in the neighborhood. It's moved into a Margarita Snail shell and has gotten fairly large.



EDIT - Never mind, he molted....

[Zibba]

I've done the same thing. One morning I come downstairs and only the moonlights were on and the exoskeleton from my cleaner shrimp was stuck to my powerhead in the back of the tank...I swore a few times...then realized it was just that he had molted and was chilling in his normal spot.

[hypertech]

One morning we found the emerald crab "dead". I thought for sure it wasn't a molt since it was absolutely perfect - I don't know how he got out of it since it didn't look like there was a flap or opening of any kind. I also thought it was much too heavy to be just a shell. It had to be the whole thing and I had some how managed to kill it.

It a took a few days to see him again and my wife writes me and says - did you get a new crab? Why did you buy a bigger one?

[RogersCG]

Yeah, he is quite a bit bigger....

I still think this hermit might have to go though...

[capman]

A pet store owner at a shop I used to go to in Illinois once told me of how a customer came in needing an extra shell for his hermit crabs. He had one crab, and then all of a sudden had two. The store owner tried, patiently and persistently, to explain that the crab had simply molted. The customer insisted though that he now had two crabs. They went back and forth on this for a few minutes, without the customer being convinced.

So, the pet store owner gave up and sold him a new shell!