Hermit crab death

[Spazz67]

Ok last week I lost my smallest red legged hermit crab, little red legs all over the tank. We thought it was the larger Hermit that did it. Well the larger one was found dead, not a shed, and we visiblely can't find his shell anywhere. We recently got two oyster clusters and it is posible that a hitch hiker is in the tank, but we haven't seen any, other than some good pods. The contents of the tank are 3 feather dusters, 2 snails, 2 peppermint shrimp, and 2 oyster clusters with about 12 small barnicles on them. Any suggestions on what would rip the crab out of his shell and hide the shell?

 

[HoCkEyGmC]

im thinkin that it really was a molt. after they molt their "outsides" are softer than usual and they will hide until it hardens up. im thinkin it was just a molt but thats just me. i have a large hermit and every now and again i will see one of his old legs floatin around but a few days later he is crawling around the tank again.. how big is the tank?

 

[Mighty]

It probably was a molt. My tank has only been set up for a few months. Everytime I see legs sitting in the sand, I start to go crazy, thinking about all the possible scenarios. For a week, I was looking for the Jack the Ripper of hermits. Don't worry. It's probably molting.

 

[Spazz67]

HoCkEyGmC, the tank is a 46 gal no in it yet but got some curring in a bucket and it's not a molt, I've seen their molts before. The first crab had meat in its legs and the big one the whole body was found and was intack. I found the shell burried in the sand behind the fake rocks. Could the big crab have been tring to change shells and the shrimp got him? Or could a dangerous hitch hiker came in on the clusters?

 

[HoCkEyGmC]

well if u really are 110% sure that it was not a molt then idk. water parameters are always nice to help determine unknown losses. could have been a hitch hiker of some sort, and what have you added to the tank that it would hitchhike on? Live rock i presume?

 

[Spazz67]

well if u really are 110% sure that it was not a molt then idk. water parameters are always nice to help determine unknown losses. could have been a hitch hiker of some sort, and what have you added to the tank that it would hitchhike on? Live rock i presume?

The Prams are Ammonia = 0, Nitrate = 0, Ph = 8.4, and Nitrite = 0. The only thing we've added is two oyster cluster (small oyster beds, both are about 4 to 5 1/2 in long and 3 to 4 in wide and 3 to 4 in tall), which had a few crabs and some good pods. We thought that we had removed all of the crabs. These clusters came from Florida.

 

[HoCkEyGmC]

there could have been more crabs but if they werent hermits, than i dont see why they would kill for a shell or kill and not eat the body... still unsure.

 

[Spazz67]

I set a trap for the crab killer, I put the large hermit crab(the one thats going in my fuge) in a sealed breedery and sank it, upside down. Lo and Behold, I caught something. A nickel sized fiddler crab. Still can't figure out why he didn't eat the red legged hermit, if this is even the killer.