Hermits...There can be Only One!

[ShyTalk]

Well a couple of months back I added four scarlet reef hermits to the tank, colourful chaps but every few days i'd find scarlet legs and claws on the sand and another had battled to the death with one of its colleagues, after a couple of weeks there was just the one left.

Then the other week I bought two electric blue hermits from Cristalclearwaters reefmeet, the pair seemed to be pretty much ignoring each other, then today I find black & blue stripy legs and claws an the substrate, so now i'm down to just one of them too!

I keep adding plenty of shells so they don't need to battle it out but they seem to keep on killing each other, I'm assuming they are killing each other and nothing else in the tank is killing them, I never see them scrapping, just the fragments of hermit the next morning on the sand, I wish they'd sodding well leave each other alone!

[Marine Life Uk]

I wonder if you have something else lurking in the rockwork. Id be inclined to get the red torch out and stake out the tank.
Have you ever heard any clicking coming from the tank??
Also where have you found their shells

[ShyTalk]

I was wondering the same thing Adrian, maybe a mantis or something is in there?
I've never seen any of the hermits doing battle, one of the electric blues seemed to be having a go at the last scarlet reef hermit, I thought because it had taken over a shell way too big for it and the much larger electric blue fancied his huge shell, but after a few minutes they parted both of them intact.

The only time i hear clicking is when either a hermit or snail taps its shell on the glass, but not heard any other clicks, the shells are usually just resting on the substrate after a battle, not like something has dragged them off into a cave, although I honestly don't know what has happened to this electric blue one, i can't spot the shell, just three legs on the sand again.

I made a trap out of a pop bottle to catch a thug like gramma, i might drop it back in for a couple of nights and see if it catches anything other than my peppermints?


Gav

[Marine Life Uk]

eunice maybe, dont think your trap a eunice or a mantis mate they a far too clever for this. Hermits do sometimes war but dont normally kill each other but it can happen.
They normally as you say battle for a shell sort out who is having what and go on their merry way. Sure its not the remains of a shed??

[ShyTalk]

Well i have been trapping and removing worms since day one as there were literally thousands of the sods in this rock when i got it, and they certainly did catch and kill snails I saw them do it, I do seem to have more than one type of worm too, but i did look to see if any were eunice worms and they didn't seem to have the fringe on the head like the pics of eunice's i could find.

I reckon i have got rid of the majority of them now, but i do know there are a few big sods left in there, they rarely come out of their caves and are really tricky to catch, some will just go in the trap leaving most of their body still in the cave so they can easily reverse out again, i've tried grabbing them with tweezers but they usually split into two and i just end up with half a worm, I was considering an arrow crab but they have issues too and the only one my lfs had was tiny, one of these worms would have it on toast!

Certainly not hearing the loud mantis type clicking it does make me think you may be onto something with a large worm, i might stick the trap back in for a few more nights see if i catch one of these big 'uns, maybe try the pop bottle just to see if anything gets caught beside pepp's.

[Gaters]

Are you 100% sure that your crabs aren't just moulting. Especially as they often do this within a week or 2 of going into a new tank. How & how long do you acclimatise them for? Same with snails-how do you acclimatise? i've never seen a healthy snail eaten by bristles.

[reefergeek]

As Gaters said i thought i had lost a few as when they moult they do look like dead crabs only the other day a blue legged one moulted, I went mad looking for a mantis due to advice form an lfs clicking at night some times through the day, The pc desk was next to the tank and something just happened to catch my eye it was one of the hermits breaking bits of live rock off i had the red light on the tank at nights infra red camcorder and found nothing until that day

[Tangman]

I believe the blue legs do attack red legs and will kil them, Macca is the crab man he will soon tell you. Twiggy

[Johnboyminster]

I've had this problem - i lost 2 crabs to worms in the last week, have just seen them coming out of the rock so am going to go hunting!

[ejit]

I had 5 red legs living happily then got a blue leg...by day two he killed to hermits and two large turbo snails
even when there was plenty of new shells in the back of the tank....he had to go.