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Coral Vue Hydros

Zebra hermit is a cannibal


spazizz

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I'd thought id share this with you guys, I have a large full grown Zebra hermit crab that is about 2 1/2 years old, He has always been by himself in my 55g despite adding other crabs. Last night I caught him in the act of eating one of my new hermits, alive! I always wondered why my crabs always disappeared except him. There are plenty of shells and the victim was half his size so I guess he is just territorial. I'm guess this is how all Zebras are despite all websites saying they are peaceful herbivores, because it wasn't just him i had another top dog hermit who ruled for awhile making other hermits vanish then i added him and he was the new alpha.

 

There can be only one.

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Were the hermit snacks the same species? I've found that ever peaceful hermits can vary in temperament when they live with other species of hermits vs their own.

 

I have scarlet reef hermits which are super peaceful to everything. And they seem to stay tiny.

 

My blue legs terrorize each other but leave other species alone.

 

My left handed hermits kill other species but leave each other alone.

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  • 3 weeks later...
My zebra was attacking another zebra that was smaller.

 

 

This is only a guess based on my experience. This aggressive zebra crab is of the dominant sex. There can only be one. All the rest are killed. The reason I think this is because I have about 3 zebras in my 36 gallon. They were all the same size when I got them and one is 3 times larger than the other 3. I had a few more but they disappeared.

 

I also have a larger zebra in my mantis tank. I decided to give the lone one in the mantis tank some company. I added the large zebra from my 36g to the mantis tank. The moment they saw each other, they aimed to kill. It was like putting two female clowns in a 5 gallon tank.

 

I feel they kill a lot more than that. I've had two electric blue hermits vanish. I can't identify anything even close to the 40 hermits I use to have. Unfortunately, I have no evidence of this. I have never seen it attack anything in the 36g.

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