Hermit Crab MASSACRE! The Horror!

rickyl2

rickyl2

New Member
I seem to be losing more than my fair share of hermit crabs.
Specs:
55 Gallon that is 2 months old
About 20 hermit crabs (generic)
Originally 10 zebra leg hermit crabs ( I don't know what they are called)
20 Snails
six line wrasse
maroon clown
scooter blenny
3 chromis'
firefish
I am losing at least 3 zebra looking hermit crabs a day. Typically other hermit crabs are killing the zebra ones. I put the zebra crabs in a few days ago and either the zebra ones taste great or there is some serious racial tension going on in there.
Sometimes the clown, wrasse and chromis' will eat them after they are taken out of their shell.
I feed the tank almost a full cube of mysis shrimp a day, it seems to be the perfect amount of food.
I am very confused about this, not nearly this much canniblism was going on before the zebra crabs were put in. Is this normal or what is wrong?
Thanks for any help
Ricky
 
toyshika

toyshika

Member
Originally Posted by rickyl2
I seem to be losing more than my fair share of hermit crabs.
Specs:
55 Gallon that is 2 months old
About 20 hermit crabs (generic)
Originally 10 zebra leg hermit crabs ( I don't know what they are called)
20 Snails
six line wrasse
maroon clown
scooter blenny
3 chromis'
firefish
I am losing at least 3 zebra looking hermit crabs a day. Typically other hermit crabs are killing the zebra ones. I put the zebra crabs in a few days ago and either the zebra ones taste great or there is some serious racial tension going on in there.
Sometimes the clown, wrasse and chromis' will eat them after they are taken out of their shell.
I feed the tank almost a full cube of mysis shrimp a day, it seems to be the perfect amount of food.
I am very confused about this, not nearly this much canniblism was going on before the zebra crabs were put in. Is this normal or what is wrong?
Thanks for any help
Ricky
Must get EMPTY shells so they can move in..if not...they will kill for the bigger shell!
 
jhov2324

jhov2324

Member
YOu need to get alot of different size shells, bigger ones than the ones you have, I love hermits and had the same prob. the blue legged hermits seem to be on the aggressive side, the Red scarlets are very passive, once you run out of shells they will go after your snails,
 
mr_bill

mr_bill

Active Member
If they are not molts.... are the hermits actually being eaten by other hermits or are the current residents just jealous of the new hermits shells? Not much will keep a jealous hermit from a shell it has its eye one. Adding extra shells will help for sure, try to get a variety of colors. The brighter shells(white, light tan) seem to be the favorite of my hermits.
 
merredeth

merredeth

Active Member
Go to the craft store and buy a bag of craft shells.
Boil them for about twenty minutes to a half hour (to kill anything that may be in them and to clean them) and stick them in your tank.
The crabs will also massacre snails for their shells if you don't get slightly bigger shells than the ones they have.
Denise M.
 
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