Hermit Assassin help

[Snotman]

The last couple of days I have been finding the front ends of my Scarlet legged Hermits lying about the tank. 3 so far. I even found one hermit out of his shell looking a little stunned! I got his shell back over to him and he got back in. He may well now be one of the gonners.

I recovered the parts thinking it may be a sloughed skin (hoping) but it completely keeps the colour, the eye stalks etc are still attached and the remains feel quite substantial. Its only ever the red front end, none of the curly soft white bit.

Is something Assassinating my red leg population? or is this the way they shed?

I have:
1 Anchor coral with 4 heads.
Loads of Xenia.
2 common clowns with BTA
1 chalk Goby
1 very small Foxface
2 Peppermints
loads of Turbos
10+ Red leg hermits.


Just ordered my 165g 6ftx2ftx2ft bowfront tank !! so dont worry about swimming space for Foxface, he has a lovely home on its way to take into account his coming needs.

 

[roka64]

What are you water parameters?
How long have they been in the tank?
How did you acclimate them?
When I saw my first hermit's molt, it looked exactly the same as the hermit. I thought he was a goner, but three days later I saw a new shell move.
Do you have larger, empty shells for them to move to, after they molt?

 

[ken_wied]

My large red hermit crab molted his skin also, and I had originally thought my puffer had a good dinner. But, three days later the big guy was up and at it again. His molted skin looked just like he had fallen out of the shell and died, antennae and all, but it was fine. The puffer even chewed on the molt, and its all gone now.
No worries

 

[Snotman]

Params are great! all zeros including Nitrates since the addition of an AquaMedic SulphurNitratereductor! Great bit of kit, even if the instructions are poorly translated from german.

I acclimatised them in their bag in the sump for 40 minutes then did the occasional addition of tank water etc. They all hit the rocks running so to speak, instantly chowing down on anything they could find. That said I think they must have been ravenous as the huge, hermit only tank they were in had nothing in but other hermits. Maybe they have all developed into canabals

I have about 10 red legs and can never see them all at one time to check if any are gone. I hope its a molt, its the colour that threw me, all the motls ive seen are near colourless and thin walled. These were red and a bit meaty

Although, my tank seems to be going through a molt-fest at the moment, my sally lightfoot and pepps are doing it too. The sally molt was a complete replica of the adult but clear, again, I hope its a molt