Hermit Crab eating my turbo snails

huckjai · Jan 1, 2020

Hey Reefers. I have, or had rather, 2 turbo snails. This morning my largest hermit crab, about 1.5", was with a bunch of smaller hermits crowded around a cleaned out turbo snail shell. The enail was alive yesterday. Just got home and the hermit just killed my other turbo snail which is around the same size as the hermit.

I've recently started to feed my fish less, as I was getting diatoms on my sand and green hair algae was starting to bloom on my glass. Tank is 3 months old, and started with live rock. I don't have much algae on my rocks, so I'm sure the food supply for my crabs is low.

Should I start feeding the crabs with frozen shrimp? Or just feed the fish more and try and get algae growth on the rocks? Do you guys try to grow algae on the rocks as a food source? Not sure if there is a balance of algae growth I should be aiming for on the rocks. Or better not to have algae on them?

Gareth elliott · Jan 1, 2020

If they are not getting enough food they will try to get it. So if feel could increase your feedings, i would increase.

next do you have extra shells Of varying sizes? Hermits when needing to molt will look for shells and if none around or they tried those and didnt like. Will kill a snail and try that on. They do not always know what they need only that snails have it, so many times will kill only to realize its too small or too large.

huckjai · Jan 1, 2020

Gareth elliott said:
If they are not getting enough food they will try to get it. So if feel could increase your feedings, i would increase.

next do you have extra shells Of varying sizes? Hermits when needing to molt will look for shells and if none around or they tried those and didnt like. Will kill a snail and try that on. They do not always know what they need only that snails have it, so many times will kill only to realize its too small or too large.

Yup, I added shells of various sizes after another hermit crab killed one of my ceriths for a shell. One of the hermit keeps trying on shells, it reverts back to its old one, haha.