Hermit crabs eating alive fish

[MikeyAl]

Keeps the cuc happy

 

[Humblefish]

I dice em up on a cutting board then scrape it back in the dt

I understand the logic behind this, but I could never do that to one of my "children".

P.S. If the fish died due to a transmissible disease, this may not be a wise course of action.

 

[Lenny_S]

Me and just about everyone I know have not had any luck with hermit crabs. They are far too aggressive. I did a snail only CUC for this latest tank, but unfortunately, unknown to me 4 hermit crabs were mixed in with a large quantity of dwarf ceriths. I lost at least a dozen before I got the last hermit out. Plenty of food, shells with plenty of room, they were just intent on killing and eating snails.
It's a shame about the YT, had it been healthy perhaps the hermits would have left it alone. But it might have made it too had it not been for the hermits preying on it.
Just really not a hermit crab fan. Sorry for your loss.

 

[Humblefish]

^^ Agree about the hermits. Your CUC should be snails or hermits, not both. Crabs are evil escargot connoisseurs.

 

[pingzing47]

I recently had a 6 line wrasse have a large chunck taken out of his back. It died but not right away. Not sure if my Yello Tang chewed him or my electric blue crab or red leg crab. No problems since this. Any ideas?

 

[Humblefish]

I recently had a 6 line wrasse have a large chunck taken out of his back. It died but not right away. Not sure if my Yello Tang chewed him or my electric blue crab or red leg crab. No problems since this. Any ideas?

If memory serves, Electric Blues can get pretty large. How big is yours?

 

[Lionfish Lair]

I understand the logic behind this, but I could never do that to one of my "children".

P.S. If the fish died due to a transmissible disease, this may not be a wise course of action.

+ 1,000,000 on this. I do necropsies and look at tissue under the microscope of my fish that die. Trust me, you do not want to be putting that back in your tank. There's so many things on them one cannot see with the naked eye..... look at that under a scope and it can make your skin crawl.

 

[Reefersutherland_]

Hey, what doesn't kill you...

 

[Robbs Reef]

As title says just found my yellow tang with about 6 hermits trying to eat him alive. I noticed today he wasn't eating and was staying in his hole. Went to check on him and the hermits we attached to his fins. I tore up the rock works and got him out of the tank. Setting up a hospital tank for him now, but is this normal? Can the crabs tell he was sick or something? All other fish are fine.

you are not feeding enough to the crabs yes they will do that

 

[pingzing47]

If memory serves, Electric Blues can get pretty large. How big is yours?

I would have to guess it is in a shell about 1 inch. You don't miss seeing it

 

[Plyr58]

Personally, I've had mostly good luck with scarlet hermits. I've had one or two murderous ones in the last ten years but they end up getting plucked and go for a swim in the toilet.