wHY IS MY HERMIT CRAB EATING MY SNAILS

[CopeluvsCope]

Hello,
I kinda new to the hobby, but everytime I buy a new snail my blue legged crab kills them?? He has taken one of the shells but why kill all 3 of them? The crab keeps changing from his original shell to the snail shell. My snails are the turbo snails. I have 2 red legged crabs that stay away from the blue legged crab. AI am afraid I will not have a good clean up crew? Any advice would be great!!!

 

[cgoodman381]

This is why a lot of people recommend having a hermit only or snail only CUC. Hermits tend to like to take snail shells.

As far as it killing the snails and not taking your shell... Maybe its not getting enouph food and it sees the snails as you feeding it? I dnno?

 

[michelle]

Hermit crabs are known to kill snails. Granted in theory it is to get a bigger shell when they need it, but perhaps they can develope a taste for them. I know a few people on here will not keep them in their tank. That being said I have them and have no problems. Just throwing out a theory here, but are all the shells he has taken around the same size? perhaps he is still looking for one that fits right. maybe if you bought a few empty hermit shells of different sizes it would solve your problem. I had about 15 given to me with my hermits and I threw them in...I have no problems. I could be completely off base, but maybe it just needs options

 

[CopeluvsCope]

Thank you for the replies, My lfs gave me a bunch of different size shells when I bought the crab. I am so afraid of overfeeding maybe I'm not feeding enough.
Thank you again for the advice.

 

[yote]

Some hermits just have a thing for killing snails.They probably do eat them,but most of the time its to try the shell on.If the shell dont fit right,the hermit finds another one.
Thats the reason I took all the hermits out of my tank.

 

[Piggy]

That is the reason I hate them. I put all mine in the sump. I got tired of replacing snails. I had all types of empty shells for the hermits but they kept killing my snails. So now I have a hermit free DT.

 

[Bifferwine]

I also belong in the camp that will not add any more hermits to my tank for this reason. They are snail killers. Hermits are not necessary for a good cleaner crew.

 

[daugherty]

i have one hermit and it is in the sump