Blue Leg Hermit Crabs wreaking havoc- Help

[capps_caitlyn]

Has anyone ever had this problem?

I have about 12 blue leg hermit crabs and they keep killing everything. They killed two large and one small peppermint shrimp and over 20 large and small snails. They don't even take the snail shells, they just kill them and eat them. I have seen up to 6 hermit crabs take down one large snail and all eat it together. All of my hermit crabs are tiny. The biggest one only fits into a shell about a half an inch.

I have had the crabs in the tank since I set it up over a year ago. Only in the past 2 months have I had trouble with them.

Should I just remove all of them from the tank or could there be something causing it. Either way, all of the dead inverts are making the tank water nasty and I have to keep doing frequent water changes because of all of the dead snails.

Help.

[89Foxbody]

I have never had a problem with blue legs attacking other animals...I find it hard to believe that they would kill peppermint shrimp. However, crabs are opportunistic and if they can't find other food they will eat whatever they can.

[Lorenz725]

I have a lot of blue legs and they dont bother any of my snails. Not saying they never do but as fast as peppermint shrimp are I dont see how they could catch and kill it. Are you seeing them attack the peppermints or are u seeing them dead with the hermits eating them? Are you sure they are not just picking at there molts?

[Everyones Hero]

I agree that peppermint shrimp should be too fast for the crabs to catch.

It's possible that something else killed the shrimp & the crabs are just there for the clean up.

Have you recently tested the water or used any kind of medication or new additive?

[schristi69]

Maybe your crabs need additional feeding? I make sure they have a little extra once or twice a week.

[Fin Mike]

A few ideas. Do you think they are hungry, and is there enough algae for all of them to eat? They are opportunistic. If they can get to food, they will eat it. They are definitely not fast enough to catch a healthy pep shrimp. I would also think that a healthy snail could lock itself into its shell, and resist the crab onslaught. If you have ever tried to pull a healthy snail out of its shell, then you know what I mean.

Is it possible some of your animals are dying and the crabs are snacking on the corpses? You said they were "making the tank water nasty" due to them killing the snails. Do you think the water may have been "nasty" before all this happened? Unfortunately it seems more plausible that the snails and the shrimp died first.
What size is your tank? It would have to be one huge snail to really foul a well filtered/ skimmed tank of descent (50gals or greater) size. Give it some thought and let us all know.

[sanchoy]

99.9% they did not kill your shrimp. Your livestock that you saw them eating were more then likely dead and decaying. Hermits are more of scavengers then hunters. They will kill small snails, however huge turbos are too large. They will only attack one if it is dead and dieing.

[BrookR1]

When blue legged hermits get a certain size, they become a PITA. Mine were constantly eating each other, picking at corals, and killing snails. I replaced them with scarlet hermits and am much happier. The scarlets aren't as active, but they are way more peaceful.

[Chris27]

Unless you have a very small tank, I wouldn't blame the poor water quality on a handful of slowly eaten snails....likely there is something else going on there. Try tossing in some extra food and extra shells for the hermits, perhaps it will calm them down a bit.

[iwishtofish]

My blue legs apparently weren't finding enough to eat in my tank. Neither were some of my snails. When the snails either became weak or died, the hermits would devour them. Then they began to systematically pick tissue off my duncan coral. They were then banished to the sump, where I try to keep them adequately fed with meaty pellets.

[Jeremy1988]

Originally Posted by capps_caitlyn

Has anyone ever had this problem?

I have about 12 blue leg hermit crabs and they keep killing everything. They killed two large and one small peppermint shrimp and over 20 large and small snails. They don't even take the snail shells, they just kill them and eat them. I have seen up to 6 hermit crabs take down one large snail and all eat it together. All of my hermit crabs are tiny. The biggest one only fits into a shell about a half an inch.

I have had the crabs in the tank since I set it up over a year ago. Only in the past 2 months have I had trouble with them.

Should I just remove all of them from the tank or could there be something causing it. Either way, all of the dead inverts are making the tank water nasty and I have to keep doing frequent water changes because of all of the dead snails.

Ur crazy...none of this is happening. I have had hermits and snails of all sorts in LR feeding it only 3 pellets of food a week in rubbermaid buckets and NO ONE ATE ANYONE...

Help.

[Jeremy1988]

Originally Posted by Lorenz725

I have a lot of blue legs and they dont bother any of my snails. Not saying they never do but as fast as peppermint shrimp are I dont see how they could catch and kill it. Are you seeing them attack the peppermints or are u seeing them dead with the hermits eating them? Are you sure they are not just picking at there molts?

Exactly....thank you. Have you ever tried to feed a hermit crab mysis shrimp with a turkey baster...ummmm there like retarded and take a while to pick up on it...sometimes . No way they could track down a pepperiment.

[Alexraptor]

Yeah I agree completely. Hermit crabs are incredibly clumsy dragging their shells around and a healthy shrimp can dart off in the blink of an eye.

[PIPSTER]

Those hermits will do a much better job of keeping bad algae off the rocks and coral than a snail anyways, I got rid of snails when they started bulldozing frags off the rocks...they didn't keep up with any algae anywhere.