i need to report a hermit homicide!

[mxpro32]

blue leg hermits are mean! i had a decent sized reg leg in my tank for about 6 months then i added 5 small blue leg hermits. i saw the blue legs fighting and within a week 2 were dead. now its been about a month and i thought i saw my red leg walking but his shell had blue legs sticking out of it. he is too big to fit into any of there shells so im assuming he is dead. mean little boogers.

[Goofnut]

Did you add in some extra shells? Blue-leggeds typically prefer Astrea snail shells and will kill snails and sometimes each other if you don't have an ample supply of extra shells for them to "upgrade" to :*(

[printerdown01]

Never really had a problem with blue-legs! WOW! Mine seemed to prefer cerith shells, but they were WAY too small to fit into my astrea shells... Anyway, I have run into problems with my Zebra hermits!! They myseriously seem to be the only hermits left in my tank, and always seem to be wearing the shell of the crab that has dissappeared... One has taken an astrea shell, but I'm not totally sure that he killed a health astrea, for they fall onto their backs often (I was in europe at the time so I was unable to wittness the attack). However, now one of my zebras (I only have 2 and all other hermits dissappear, and loose thier shells X) ) is attacking the other! As in SERIOUSLY attacking!! He hunts him down in the tank, and pinches the little guy while he is inside the shell - it is disturbing to watch. I distract the attacker, and the helpless little crab escapes. However, I am now visiting my GF in her hometown, so we will see if my little crab is alive when I get back!!? :*(

[Goofnut]

Yep.. Zebra hermits are reportedly trouble -thus, I've stayed far away from them. My blue is pretty small, and is not currently in an astrea shell, but I understand that as they grow, they look forward to killing astrea snails to take over their shells. I've only had them for a little over a week, but when I picked up the 5 hermits that I now have, I picked up at least 5 or 6 additional shells. I had the LFS guy pick up an assortment of shells so that they would have a good lot to choose from. So far, I haven't lost any snails or crabs, and they don't seem to be fighting at all.

 

We'll see how long that keeps up!

[samw]

Out of the 4 species of crabs that I have (blue legged, scarlet, zebra left handed, scarlet), I've had most trouble with my South American Red Legged crabs. Here's a photo of it (in its new shell) after kicking out the Scarlett crab (on top). This happens quite regularly.

 

Oh, my blue legged crabs prefer Cerith and Margarita shells over Astraes.

 

[Dave ESPI]

Dauh.

X)

 

I also dont keep may crabs in my reefs any more. After they waste food is gone, the still hungry crabs can get "crabby" and decided to munch on stuff we like to keep in our tanks.

[Sea Wraith]

yeah....... if you wanna see just how mean the lil bastards can be then chek this out!

http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showt...threadid=107673

[NaNO ReeFiN]

I used to have a bunch of hermits in my tank but I've given most of them away... I only keep two in my tank now, and it's working out better this way.

[Sahin]

I thought about this problem and decided to have a shell graveyard near the front of the tank. Here lies a few selected shells for the hermits.I always get a few larger ones each time I visit the LFS. That way my hermits dont fight.

[Sahin]

That thread link from RC is funny!