Lost a snail

[RLIrwin]

One of my astrea snails that was fine yesterday was a completely cleaned out
shell this morning. I read that hermit crabs (I have 4) may attack snails if
they need a new shell. But I have extra shells in the tank and a crab didn't
start using the shell anyway. The only other tank inhabitants are two
clownfish. Any idea what may have happened?

[kim gross]

RLIrwin wrote:
> One of my astrea snails that was fine yesterday was a completely cleaned out
> shell this morning. I read that hermit crabs (I have 4) may attack snails if
> they need a new shell. But I have extra shells in the tank and a crab didn't
> start using the shell anyway. The only other tank inhabitants are two
> clownfish. Any idea what may have happened?
It could be any number of things. The snail may have died for some
reason and your hermits/worms etc just cleaned it out, or one of your
hermits was hungry and just ate it. Hermits are not to be trusted for
any reason. One author calls them eco-terrorists and I would agree with
him.


Kim
Jen's Sal****er Haven

[Pszemol]

"kim gross" > wrote in message ...
> Hermits are not to be trusted for any reason.
> One author calls them eco-terrorists and I would agree with him.

Come on... they just need to eat as you guys! Do not blame them for that :-)

If you have your tank clean and do not feed you cleaning crew,
it will become aggressive as any other hungry creature... including us :-)

Many people lose their hermits because they keep too many of them
in very clean tanks with no food particles left after fish feeding etc...

You just need to feed propoe amounts of food and they will be ok.

[RLIrwin]

In article >, "Pszemol" > writes:

>Subject: Re: Lost a snail
>From: "Pszemol" >
>Date: Thu, 11 Mar 2004 17:00:11 -0600
>
>"kim gross" > wrote in message
...
>> Hermits are not to be trusted for any reason.
>> One author calls them eco-terrorists and I would agree with him.
>
>Come on... they just need to eat as you guys! Do not blame them for that :-)
>
>If you have your tank clean and do not feed you cleaning crew,
>it will become aggressive as any other hungry creature... including us :-)
>
>Many people lose their hermits because they keep too many of them
>in very clean tanks with no food particles left after fish feeding etc...
>
>You just need to feed propoe amounts of food and they will be ok.

How much extra food do 4 dwarf hermit crabs need? I have two clownfish and I
feed them 1/2 of a frozen cube (they come 30 in a package) of megamarine.
Quite a bit seems to go to the bottom, but I don't know if it's enough.
Suggestions?

[Pszemol]

"RLIrwin" > wrote in message ...
> How much extra food do 4 dwarf hermit crabs need? I have two clownfish and
> I feed them 1/2 of a frozen cube (they come 30 in a package) of megamarine.
> Quite a bit seems to go to the bottom, but I don't know if it's enough.
> Suggestions?

It is very hard to give suggestions not seeing your tank, not knowing how big
these clownfish are, how often do you give them this 1/2 cube, and how much
out of this is left for crabs to supplement their algae diet...
I do not even know how much algae you have in the tank for them :-)

So I resist from giving you an advice, but rather direct you to an article
about feeding reef tank guidelines provided by dr Ron Shimek, marine
zoologist: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-02/rs/feature/index.htm

About your snail - I am not a big believer of healthy snails being attacked
by the hermits. Astrea have doors to close their shells when attacked...
I would rather expect this snail had fallen with its foot up and could not
lift itself for hours. Getting weaker and weaker with its foot exposed in
search for a thing to grab on it could finally give up to a hungry hermit.
Or just died for other reasons and the cleaning crew just did their job...

[Kelly]

> About your snail - I am not a big believer of healthy snails being
attacked
> by the hermits. Astrea have doors to close their shells when attacked...
> I would rather expect this snail had fallen with its foot up and could not
> lift itself for hours. Getting weaker and weaker with its foot exposed in
> search for a thing to grab on it could finally give up to a hungry hermit.
> Or just died for other reasons and the cleaning crew just did their job...

I had a snail fall on his back and he closed up his 'door' and I watched for
about 15 minutes as two hermits tried to get in and failed.

[Microbot]

I have seen a Hermit crab hang around a Snail that fell of the glass.
The Snail made 3 attempts to open up and turn over and each time it did, the
Hermit tried to get it.
On the 3rd try the Hermit Crab won.....
These Hermits are fed very well but still this one still went for the
Snail..
Some Hermits can have an aggressive attitude and my advice would be to
isolate it or remove it from the tank.

Cheers
Microbot

"Pszemol" > wrote in message
...
> "RLIrwin" > wrote in message
...
> > How much extra food do 4 dwarf hermit crabs need? I have two clownfish
and
> > I feed them 1/2 of a frozen cube (they come 30 in a package) of
megamarine.
> > Quite a bit seems to go to the bottom, but I don't know if it's enough.
> > Suggestions?
>
> It is very hard to give suggestions not seeing your tank, not knowing how
big
> these clownfish are, how often do you give them this 1/2 cube, and how
much
> out of this is left for crabs to supplement their algae diet...
> I do not even know how much algae you have in the tank for them :-)
>
> So I resist from giving you an advice, but rather direct you to an article
> about feeding reef tank guidelines provided by dr Ron Shimek, marine
> zoologist: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-02/rs/feature/index.htm
>
> About your snail - I am not a big believer of healthy snails being
attacked
> by the hermits. Astrea have doors to close their shells when attacked...
> I would rather expect this snail had fallen with its foot up and could not
> lift itself for hours. Getting weaker and weaker with its foot exposed in
> search for a thing to grab on it could finally give up to a hungry hermit.
> Or just died for other reasons and the cleaning crew just did their job...

[Pszemol]

"Kelly" > wrote in message news:mXb4c.781514$X%5.72617@pd7tw2no...
> I had a snail fall on his back and he closed up his 'door' and I watched
> for about 15 minutes as two hermits tried to get in and failed.

And now imagine this snail sitting there helpless for a night and day,
hungry, weak - finally it will be desperate to reach something or just
give up fighting.

[Pszemol]

"Microbot" > wrote in message u...
> These Hermits are fed very well but still this one still went for the
> Snail..
> Some Hermits can have an aggressive attitude and my advice would be to
> isolate it or remove it from the tank.

What hermits are you talking about exactly?
Are they blue-legged ones? Or scarlets? Halloween? Any others?
You know there are hundreds of species looking like a hermit :-)
Maybe yours are some kind more aggressive than mine...

[Microbot]

"Pszemol" > wrote in message
...
> "Microbot" > wrote in message
u...
> > These Hermits are fed very well but still this one still went for the
> > Snail..
> > Some Hermits can have an aggressive attitude and my advice would be to
> > isolate it or remove it from the tank.
>
> What hermits are you talking about exactly?
> Are they blue-legged ones? Or scarlets? Halloween? Any others?
> You know there are hundreds of species looking like a hermit :-)
> Maybe yours are some kind more aggressive than mine...

I have no idea as to which variation of Hermit Crabs mine are, I just know
they can (if hungry) pick an upturned snail out of its shell.
Mine are not aggressive at all, but left with nothing to eat for periods of
time I have seen one grab a passing snail on a few occasions.
I have read many places on the web where people flip over their snails if
they fall from the glass so that passing hermits dont get the chance to pick
at them.
I've also read that some Hermit Crabs may take a liking to this sort of
behaviour, Not particularly a species thing but just that particular Hermits
preference, it would be a good idea to remove that troublesome crab..

Cheers
Microbot

[RLIrwin]

The article is very informative - thanks. With regard to my tank. It is a 10
gallon tank. I would say it is relatively clean. 4 snails and 4 dwarf
blue-legged hermit crabs have done a good job of earing the algae. The
clownfish are approximately 1 1/2 - 2 inches in length. I feed them once per
day.

[Joe V.]

Has anyone observed Peppermint shrimp eating snails?

Every couple days I see a few empty Nassarius snail shells at the bottom, so
I started watching at night and always catch the shrimp eating the snails.
What I can't determine is whether it's the shrimp themselves killing the
snails, or if the snails just die and then the shrimps go and feast ...

"Kelly" > wrote in message
news:mXb4c.781514$X%5.72617@pd7tw2no...
>
> > About your snail - I am not a big believer of healthy snails being
> attacked
> > by the hermits. Astrea have doors to close their shells when attacked...
> > I would rather expect this snail had fallen with its foot up and could
not
> > lift itself for hours. Getting weaker and weaker with its foot exposed
in
> > search for a thing to grab on it could finally give up to a hungry
hermit.
> > Or just died for other reasons and the cleaning crew just did their
job...
>
> I had a snail fall on his back and he closed up his 'door' and I watched
for
> about 15 minutes as two hermits tried to get in and failed.
>
>