Something killed my hermit!!!!

[HoCkEyGmC]

i just got back from dinner and i look to my cycling tank and i see a little piece of witeish meat floating around so i walk over to the tank and i see one of my tiny blue legged hermits lying at the bottom of the tank with no shell and most of his body. (And yes i know that you dont usually add any livestock during the cycle!) i have no idea what it could have been. my only thought would be a bristle worm (but i dont see why it would leave the whole body and take the shell?) or another hermit(same thing, why would it take the shell but leave the dead body?). I'm so lost rite now!

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Probably just a molt. Just like shrimp, crabs will molt out of their old shells (their body "shell"... not their hard borrowed shell!) - but not as often as shrimp. The molts will look just like a dead crab - little eyes and all. My guess is that if you look around, you'll find your blue legged crab in his shell somewhere in your tank.

Or it died from the ammonia during cycling.

But my money is on a molt.

 

[melosu58]

I agree that a molt is highly probable.

 

[HoCkEyGmC]

so they do the whole body? thats a relief, i thought i had a crab killer on the loose! i flushed it thinking that it was murdered, LOL!

 

[roka64]

Other hermits will kill each other or snails for their larger shells. But it could just be a molt or death from the cycle.
The first time I saw my hermit's molt, it looked like a real dead body, even more so than a shrimp's molt.

 

[tuanmai111]

True true, when a hermit molts it does look like a dead one, i think becuase a hermits shell is thick so that gives it the impression that it's actually it, but when a shrimp molts you can kinda tell that it is just a empty shell. So i'm pretty sure your hermit is still crawling around somewhere....just a lil bigger that's all.

 

[Derdy88]

well i just looking in my tank and i found a dead crab(so i think) it was just his front half (what you would see when hes walking arround ) it was sittong of rock so i scooped him out and flushed him. i have a different kinds on hermit ( green legged blue and red legged ones). My blue legged crab is twice the size of the others and when i found the dead body or possibly molt i cant seem to find the blue crab he seemed to have vanished but the molt or dead crab i seen was darker more of a brown colour so im still looking for my blue crab. just thought i would let you know your not alone i aswell thought i had a killer crab on the loose