Do I have a killer!!??

[kyarnkid]

I was looking around in my tank this morning and I saw that I had a scarlet reef hermit body laying near the back of the tank. It looked like he had been pulled from his shell. There is another reef hermit sitting beside him, but I do not know if he is eating him. It looks like the other hermit is dead(his feet and eyes are poking out of his shell, but I see no movement to him).
I had this same thing happen to a blue leg about 3 weeks ago, he was pulled from his shell and his body was just laying on the rock. I hope and pray this is not a mantis, but if it was a mantis wouldn't he eat the whole crab?
Anyone know what is happening?
Thanks

 

[salty guy]

Are you sure its not a molt? They do that evey so often (4 to 6 months) they look like dead bodies.

 

[kyarnkid]

I don't know, when they molt do they have white at the end of there bodies?

 

[salty guy]

Could be, if they were ripped from there shell it would be very violent so I would thing that there claws would be missing or badly smashed up. You may want to get a net and pull the "body" in question out and look at it. If you open it up it should have stuff inside if its a body, if its a molt it will be some what hollow. If its a molt put it back in the tank. When they break down the add Cal to your water.
Keep us posted

 

[ilove2ride]

My big Blue Legged hermit once killed a new scarlet one for its shell- even though I had other shells in the tank!

 

[fshhub]

was the shell damaged, mantis aren't very full of finesse, if the want a crab, they generally go through the shell,a nd generally they will take the prey to their hole and eat it outside of their den