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GoatmealJones
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no molt, its physical morphology was that of a crab that lives without a shell. It was dead laying on my sand bed.
Weird Live Rock Phenomenon
- Thread starter GoatmealJones
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I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be rude, I'm just trying to understand. All crabs have an exoskeleton that some people refer to as it's "shell". Are you saying it was a traditional crab and not a hermit crab? Or something different that I'm not familiar with?
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GoatmealJones
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No worries. It was NOT a hermit crab to clarify.
Got ya. I just realized that this has been going on for some time so likely not an issue with a recycle or ammonia spike. Were the snails consumed at all? The shell doesn't have to be cracked for whatever it could be to pull the animal out. And the crab, was it's carapace cracked open or any signs that something attacked and killed it?
Crabs could easily kill fish and do quite often. They will also go after snails and pull them out of their shells. That is the primary reason I questioned if it was a molt and just a well fed crab growing. I've thought many times I had a dead crab just to find out I was looking at a molt, they can be surprisingly intact. Barring that though if it is predation that is occurring you may have to isolate what rock the predator is in, remove the rock and put it in a quarantine and wait for it to come out.
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GoatmealJones
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I actually removed half my aquascape and freshwater dipped the rocks to chase anything out. No luck, I think its living in the other 25lbs that are exopy'd/glued together, which im not willing to mess with. Im going to buy a red flashlight and a pest trap and take it from there. Fortunately most my livestock is fine, but yes there are a few dead snails with empty shells remaining + clicking.
It never fails. Good luck! I'm curious to find out what it is. I have a feeling the clicking and the predation may be unrelated. The clicking really sounds like a pistol shrimp and the predation sounds like a crab.
