Crab eating turbo snail

[ltkenbo]

I got a large hermit crab from my friend and yesterday it starting doing what looks like killing and eating one of the turbo snails. Now, this doesn't really bother me that much because most of the algae in my tank is gone now anyways and the one he killed is a zebra one which they are all lazy and just crawl around on the glass, the mexican turbo is the only one that actually cleans stuff up off the rocks.

Anyways point being is today I came home and noticed an odor in my room from the fish tank and went over to it to see the hermit crab eating chunks of the snail while some are floating away, then soon after that the gobey came over and he is sitting right above the snail waiting for pieces to fly out and then he eats them lol. My question here is that will this cause any serious ammonia issues? I've got 100+ lbs. of live rock, a deep sand bed, a protein skimmer and a 10 gallon sump in my 55 gallon along with chaeto algae running in the sump. Cause if it is I can pull the shell out, but if it won't be a big deal than I'll leave it.

EDIT: Actually the odor was not from that but from some fish food I left in a cup from the other day. However, the question still stands...

 

[dcantucson]

I would 'fish' it out because there's no reason to take chances. However I don't think it would cause a spike in your size of tank.

 

[Hiker4twenty]

My scarlet reef hermit is a killer in my tank. He's ate 2 of my turbo's, 2 nassarius snails and a queen conch this weekend. I've never tanken the shell out and never had a problem with it spiking my tank...I only have a 14g BC. I'd say you'll be just fine, but it's up to you.

 

[sen5241b]

Try to get him a little melted butter to dip it in.

 

[SeaBee]

Yea, melted butter and a little bib!!! Or you can take it out to be safe, but what if it died behind the rocks? I think you can go either way, whatever you feel best with.