Hermits

[queek]

I have found 4 hermit corpses in my tank the past 3 days and I dont know why. The strange thing about this is that I can't seem to find any empty shells and I figure if they are being killed there should be a few empty shells somewhere. Could these "corpses" that I am seeing be in fact molting hermits ? If this is the case how long till they will need new shells to move into ? And has anyone seen hermits molt ?
Queek
:notsure:

 

[bigarn]

They may have molted and moved back into their original shells. It's always a good idea to have extra empty shells for them to inhabit as they grow larger.

 

[wax32]

Mine molt all the time. I constantly find legs, claws, etc. lying around on the floor of my tank. Freaked me out the first couple times.

 

[queek]

The thing that got me was the "corpses" were whole and not broken up. I got one out of the tank and got it one a plastic card, dried it off and got a real close look at it and it was empty. There was no meat in the shell plus when I was getting the shell out it fell out of my pipett(sp?) and back into the tank. My Clownfish is a swimming garbage can and eats anything that falls in the tank and he came up and tasted it and then swam off. I would think if this was a real corpse he would have tried harder to get the meat out of it. I dont know but I am hoping that they are just moltting and I am not seeing some kind of murder spree going on.
Queek

 

[wax32]

Yup I sometimes see the meaty tail part of the hermits molt, but I think it's more fragile (being normally pretty soft) and often breaks down before I even see it.

 

[mudplayerx]

A dead hermit will have a sponge-like growth on his butt. A molt will look exactly like a dead hermit, except that it wil not have the sponge.
Also, when hermits die, they usually do not leave the shell to do so. With that in mind, probably the only way you are going to find a dead hermit out of a shell is when another hermit found it and pulld it from the shell... in which case it will have eaten pretty much everything but the claws.
ps- Queek... did you ever play Warhammer? There is a Skaven hero named Queek Headtaker.

 

[queek]

Mudplayerx I did play Warhammer Alot! and my race was the Skaven. That is where the name came from, he was my main man for a many battle and died almost every time he was on the field
Queek