Who ate my hermit crab!?

[javajoe]

I just finished cycling my tank, and bought a cleanup crew to get rid of some of the brown algae. The guy at the LFS suggested that I use turbo snails, as he thought they were the best. I bought 10, plus one scarlet hermit (I have a blue leg hermit that was hiding in my LS that I bought).
I also bought a Royal Gramma- he is very happy, already claimed a piece of dead coral as his home.
Right away, the scarlet hermit climbed into a hole in one of my pieces of live rock. (this hole goes all the way though, and was just a little bigger than the size of his shell- about 1.5 inches in diameter). He climed into the entrance, and just 'hung out'. i thought maybe he got stuck, but decided that maybe he was just wanting to hide for while, so i left him alone. he stayed there all through the evening.
This morning however, he was lying dead under where he climed in, with his shell in the opening. Did something eat him? or did he just get stuck, stressed out, and died? he didn't molt, as it wasn't just shells, it was all his legs and claws, attatched to a chunk of flesh. it was only a small amount of flesh- that is why i am wondering if he was eaten.
Could this be the dreaded mantis shrimp i keep reading about? There has been no clicking in my tank at all. Or, could he have died, fallen out of his shell, and my royal gramma ate most of his body?
How can i tell if i have a mantis?

 

[billyv]

Maybe the blue ate the scarlett, but it certainly wasn't your royal gramma. He most likely just died on his own. But at least you still have you blue hermit left. What temp do you keep your tank at? What is the ammonia, nitrate and nitrite levels? What about PH and Alkalinity? These may have also played a part in the fatality. Check your levels and post back here.

 

[ocellaris_keeper]

OK - since it was a new addiotn to the tank it could have simply died - I have had about 50 hermits in my tank (right now about 30ish) and the scarlets are:
1. less resilient than the blue
2. less agressive
I often have to reach into the tank and separate my crabs - they fight for each other shells all the time.
I'm surprise that the carcass is still around - wait a day your blue boy will devour him.
Go buy more - it's part of the life cycle.
BTW - I don't like turbo snails - Astrea are the most austentacious, my turbos are just bigger.

 

[javajoe]

D'oh!
Guess what? He did not die. THis is what happend.
In addition to the hermit, I also bought 3 empty shells... or at least i THOUGHT they were empty. Turns out, that ONE of the empty shells was not quite empty-- had a dead scarlet hermit in it. I was moving the empty shells a bit ago, and some more 'parts' fell out of one of them-- i compared it to the 'half-eaten' hermit i had allready taken out of the tank, and it was the missing parts...
THEN i noticed that the 'empty shell' from the one that died had moved, and sure enough- the crab is alive and well...
Mystery solved!
(this is kinda like thoses stories yoo see on the "Justice Files" where they never find the boidy, convict the guy for murder, and then the person turns up alive! )
Thanks for the info though!