newbiefishgirl Posted July 21, 2003 Share Posted July 21, 2003 I don't know if the blue hermit killed one of the snails, or if the snail passed on! I am waiting for the corerner report lol I think the Blue leg did it because it look liek he is trying to take over his shell. How rude! At any rate my question is this, if he did happen to eat the dead snail body.. (which I know he did't eat the whole thing because I have to fish the rest out when I get home) will he get sick from eating off that????? :x Link to comment
Crakeur Posted July 21, 2003 Share Posted July 21, 2003 hermit needs bigger shell. hermit sees bigger shell. hermit sees snail in bigger shell. hermit kills snail. hermit takes bigger shell. hermit happy. Link to comment
killrblue Posted July 21, 2003 Share Posted July 21, 2003 It's survival of the fittest. It wont die off unless the snail was infected with something, but I doubt it. Link to comment
newbiefishgirl Posted July 21, 2003 Author Share Posted July 21, 2003 I guess you are both right.... I feel bad I couldn't save the poor lil guy tho. I saw he hadn't been very active.. I think he could have being harrased. He was the only one from the three I bought last week that didn't seem to be "active" I just hope he didn't have some kind of disease...!!! ALl others are doing fine. My coral banded moted for the second time that I have had him. (had him about 2 months) Its so cool!!! Link to comment
Crakeur Posted July 21, 2003 Share Posted July 21, 2003 snails can die if there is copper in the water, high ammonia, nitrates, nitrites. high salinity, low salinity too. snail falls upside on sand. snail dies. hermit picks shell clean for new home. lots of things can kill a snail. they are rather sensitive to water parameters. more sensitive than most corals in my exp. Link to comment
newbiefishgirl Posted July 21, 2003 Author Share Posted July 21, 2003 I checked my water on Friday night.. all was well. I will check it again when I get home. I dont think I could have any copper in the water since I use RO only. The other three snails dont seem to be affected... Hope it stays that way. But I will definatly check water when I get home tonight. This all was seen this morning so... I was on my way to work. Link to comment
SteveC Posted July 21, 2003 Share Posted July 21, 2003 If you have hermits it's always a good idea to have a pile of empty shells for them. They need to change shells when they grow. Your LFS may give you some empty snail shells, and someone posted recently that Walmart has a bag of small empty shells for cheap. Make sure they're just a little bit bigger than the ones your hermit has currently. I also find it useful to feed my hermits. They do seem to eat more algae when they're getting fed. Blue legs are pretty mean as far as hermits go (I've heard the zebras are worse). I have three blue legs in the tank I reserve for nasty critters. They got put there because they started killing eachother and other critters even though I fed them and made sure they had shells. There are only three of them left (out of six or eight) and one of them is really big and mean. He even wears a small turbo snail shell. I would almost suspect him of being a different species except he looks exactly like a blue leg. This guy and his two henchmen have figured out how to pry limpets off the walls to eat them, even though I feed the tank regularly. I've had much better results with scarlet reef hermits. They're more expensive but they're far more docile. I've also heard that Mexican red legs are pretty good. But don't get any of them if you still have a blue leg in your tank! Even a tiny one! That was my mistake: Oh, those two little guys won't hurt anybody; I'll take them out when they start to get big. Two days later they were wearing two of the scarlets' shells and two of my scarlets were nowhere to be found... Honestly, though, I suspect Dr. Ron is right about hermits in general; that they're worse than useless. If I had to do it all over again, I'd go clawless. Hermits are fun to watch though. Link to comment
newbiefishgirl Posted July 21, 2003 Author Share Posted July 21, 2003 Thanks for the advice... I actually wanted to get some scarlet hermits, but I'll tell ya. I am limited around here for salt water stock. There are three places to go to. Not bad right, BUT two of them have hardly anything in there tanks. They don't keep them stocked with variety.. I suspect because not a lot of salt water aquarist in the area. I want to add my royal gramma fish and I went to all three.. out of the three one said he can possibly special order for me. Thank goodness!!! I will keep an eye on those blue legs!! Link to comment
Vincerama Posted July 21, 2003 Share Posted July 21, 2003 RE: Walmart shells Go to the "Craft" section, there are bags of shells for about three bucks. There are small blue-leg sized shells and larger ones too. You should look at your hermits and toss in a few that are slightly larger. I boiled my shells first, as the packaging seems to include a bit of dirt and stuff. Make sure you don't buy the painted shells! Vince Link to comment
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