Murder Crab advice

[Tomhodg]

So, I've recently slowly been adding a cleanup crew to my tank, namely 2 hermit crabs, 6 snails and a shrimp.

Today I spotted my hermit crab straight up murder the shrimp and one of my snails have disappeared with a shell on the bottom fo my tank.

This boy here is the culprit, what should I do? I spoke to a buddy who has a reef tank and said to give him to a pet store as he will murder pretty much any cleanup crew that I add to the tank (he could tell by the claws?).

What should I do?

 

[andrewey]

You'll find divided opinions on crabs. What kind of shrimp was it? Did you watch the crab kill the shrimp or was it consuming it's body? Crabs can/will definitely kill snails for their shells. That's why it's always a good idea that if you decide to keep the crab, I would sprinkle a variety of sizes of empty shells for him to choose from. It's up to you whether you want to return him or not- on some tanks I do snails only to avoid predation, whereas on my current tank I have a mix of snails and crabs- as long as I keep the crabs well fed and have plenty of extra houses for them to choose from, I haven't seen them kill any snails.

 

[Tomhodg]

You'll find divided opinions on crabs. What kind of shrimp was it? Did you watch the crab kill the shrimp or was it consuming it's body? Crabs can/will definitely kill snails for their shells. That's why it's always a good idea that if you decide to keep the crab, I would sprinkle a variety of sizes of empty shells for him to choose from. It's up to you whether you want to return him or not- on some tanks I do snails only to avoid predation, whereas on my current tank I have a mix of snails and crabs- as long as I keep the crabs well fed and have plenty of extra houses for them to choose from, I haven't seen them kill any snails.

I witnessed the killing... personally, I'm leaning towards removing him completely and as I said returning him, I have a smaller hermit crab too which I'll keep in the tank.

This is my first ever tank, I personally wanted a community of peaceful fish and the worry of having my cleanup crew killed isnt really my plan.

 

[F i s h y]

Snatch and grab dump in the sump...

 

[andrewey]

Yup- in that case, he'd either go to sump patrol or I'd trade him to the LFS for them to put him in a predator or FOWLR tank.

 

[Bryknicks]

I would increase feeding and get empty shells in the tank. If it did indeed kill the shrimp then I'm sure it was a lack of food. I have a tank full of hermits, crabs, snails, shrimp, and have not encountered this. I have scarletts, red legs, blue legs, emeralds, ect.