Crabzilla gone nuts!

I've seen my blue legged hermit crabs hacking into snail homes quite often.
Then after they eat them I see them wearing their shell.
You are right, some of the more healthy snails can close up until the crab
looses interest
but I've seen them wear the snail down.

Now I have enough abandon snail and crab shells in my
tank to support the next round of kids.

I don't care who eats who, just want them to keep up with the algae and
crud on the bottom. (or the occasional dead fish)


"Pszemol" wrote in message
...
"Gill Passman" wrote in message
...
Well somewhere (or maybe not anymore) I have a mithrax crab in my Nano
tank....haven't seen it in eons.....but after I got persuaded to buy it I
went out and did some googling....and found that they do have a
reputation for picking off fish.....but my clowns are doing fine....and
the snail losses I put down to the hermits.....

Another misconception about hermits killing snails. :-)

And again many people have seen hermits eating dead snails.
I do not know anybody seeing a hermit grabing alive and healthy
snail and killing it on the spot.

Snails do die for many reasons in the tank. Most often they die
due to the reef tanks being too hot and many snails are from the
Gulf of Mexico or some other semi-tropical but not tropical areas.
When you put animal from one environment to another it might
not kill it instantly, just significantly shorten its life.

Let's not jump too quickly to the wrong conclusion that since
hermit or mythrax was caught eating dead fish/snail it MUST
mean that the crab acturally captured the live prey....

Unless we actuallty see a helthy snail speeding on the glass
and hermit grabing it and killing I would not blame hermits...
Same applies to mythrax crabs.

We all like shortcuts when we try understand our observations.
But not all shortcuts leading to the true explanation of what happened!

You would not blame some guy "with bad reputation" for a murder
or robery only because you saw him in the store or saw him holding
dead person in his arms, would you ? Think about it... :-))

"TheRock" wrote in message news:QCCBh.1304$_O1.963@trndny04...
I've seen my blue legged hermit crabs hacking into snail homes quite often.
Then after they eat them I see them wearing their shell.
You are right, some of the more healthy snails can close up until the crab
looses interest
but I've seen them wear the snail down.

Now I have enough abandon snail and crab shells in my
tank to support the next round of kids.

I don't care who eats who, just want them to keep up with the algae and
crud on the bottom. (or the occasional dead fish)

The whole discussion is exactly about who eats who... :-)

So it is important to notice if crabs eat dead/sick snails
or if they are able to catch/hunt down healthy snail...
In the meaning of a word "hunting" we are used to when
talking about, for example, eagle grabbing a rabbit...

For an eagle it does not relly matter if a rabbit is sick,
if it can see it, it will take it when hungry...
This behaviour I call hunting. With crabs/hermits the prey
animal has to be originaly very weak/sick or dead already
to became prey. That is why they are called "cleaning crew".

They do not decimate healthy population of snails, rather
pick the dead/sick ones as food. That is my working theory :-)
And current reports on the internet are not describing any
hunting behaviour, rather people see crabs eating dead meat
and ASSUME what must have happened before... :-)))

"Pszemol" wrote in message
...
"TheRock" wrote in message
news:QCCBh.1304$_O1.963@trndny04...
I've seen my blue legged hermit crabs hacking into snail homes quite
often.
Then after they eat them I see them wearing their shell.
You are right, some of the more healthy snails can close up until the
crab looses interest
but I've seen them wear the snail down.

Now I have enough abandon snail and crab shells in my
tank to support the next round of kids.

I don't care who eats who, just want them to keep up with the algae and
crud on the bottom. (or the occasional dead fish)

The whole discussion is exactly about who eats who... :-)

So it is important to notice if crabs eat dead/sick snails
or if they are able to catch/hunt down healthy snail...
In the meaning of a word "hunting" we are used to when
talking about, for example, eagle grabbing a rabbit...

For an eagle it does not relly matter if a rabbit is sick,
if it can see it, it will take it when hungry...
This behaviour I call hunting. With crabs/hermits the prey
animal has to be originaly very weak/sick or dead already
to became prey. That is why they are called "cleaning crew".

They do not decimate healthy population of snails, rather
pick the dead/sick ones as food. That is my working theory :-)
And current reports on the internet are not describing any
hunting behaviour, rather people see crabs eating dead meat
and ASSUME what must have happened before... :-)))

Agreed..
The ones we are talking about are not hunters.
Nor aggressive or large enough to be.

When I had a fish only tank 5 years ago (29 gal)
I had a large common hermit crab.
The one with the hairy legs...mean SOB
This guy I believe to be a hunter. He would go after everything.
My damsels used to whack him with their tails.
So to keep it REAL interesting I put 2 in the same tank.
I know, that was a dark time in my life : )

Oh the fights were incredible.

"TheRock" wrote in message news:0zEBh.1084$SR.896@trndny06...
The whole discussion is exactly about who eats who... :-)

So it is important to notice if crabs eat dead/sick snails
or if they are able to catch/hunt down healthy snail...
In the meaning of a word "hunting" we are used to when
talking about, for example, eagle grabbing a rabbit...

For an eagle it does not relly matter if a rabbit is sick,
if it can see it, it will take it when hungry...
This behaviour I call hunting. With crabs/hermits the prey
animal has to be originaly very weak/sick or dead already
to became prey. That is why they are called "cleaning crew".

They do not decimate healthy population of snails, rather
pick the dead/sick ones as food. That is my working theory :-)
And current reports on the internet are not describing any
hunting behaviour, rather people see crabs eating dead meat
and ASSUME what must have happened before... :-)))

Agreed..
The ones we are talking about are not hunters.
Nor aggressive or large enough to be.

They are probably hunters in the regular meaning, but they
regular prey are worms, crustaceans - anything very small
they could grab with one reach of a claw. Dead/sick snail
is an opportunity they do not pass, but they usually do
not waste their life energy to hunt larger healthy animals.
At least this is my observation in my tanks, with dozens
if not hundreds of several different hermits and crabs.

When I had a fish only tank 5 years ago (29 gal)
I had a large common hermit crab.
The one with the hairy legs...mean SOB
This guy I believe to be a hunter. He would go after everything.
My damsels used to whack him with their tails.
So to keep it REAL interesting I put 2 in the same tank.
I know, that was a dark time in my life : )

Oh the fights were incredible.

Did they really hurt each other (broken limbs, etc.)
or just wrestle to establish who is The Leader in the tank? ;-)

"Pszemol" wrote in message
...
"TheRock" wrote in message
news:0zEBh.1084$SR.896@trndny06...
The whole discussion is exactly about who eats who... :-)

So it is important to notice if crabs eat dead/sick snails
or if they are able to catch/hunt down healthy snail...
In the meaning of a word "hunting" we are used to when
talking about, for example, eagle grabbing a rabbit...

For an eagle it does not relly matter if a rabbit is sick,
if it can see it, it will take it when hungry...
This behaviour I call hunting. With crabs/hermits the prey
animal has to be originaly very weak/sick or dead already
to became prey. That is why they are called "cleaning crew".

They do not decimate healthy population of snails, rather
pick the dead/sick ones as food. That is my working theory :-)
And current reports on the internet are not describing any
hunting behaviour, rather people see crabs eating dead meat
and ASSUME what must have happened before... :-)))

Agreed..
The ones we are talking about are not hunters.
Nor aggressive or large enough to be.

They are probably hunters in the regular meaning, but they
regular prey are worms, crustaceans - anything very small
they could grab with one reach of a claw. Dead/sick snail
is an opportunity they do not pass, but they usually do
not waste their life energy to hunt larger healthy animals.
At least this is my observation in my tanks, with dozens
if not hundreds of several different hermits and crabs.

When I had a fish only tank 5 years ago (29 gal)
I had a large common hermit crab.
The one with the hairy legs...mean SOB
This guy I believe to be a hunter. He would go after everything.
My damsels used to whack him with their tails.
So to keep it REAL interesting I put 2 in the same tank.
I know, that was a dark time in my life : )

Oh the fights were incredible.

Did they really hurt each other (broken limbs, etc.)
or just wrestle to establish who is The Leader in the tank? ;-)

Oh hell no, they ended up fighting to the death !
They would start at either end of the tank banging their shells against the
glass, like a dance.
Then they would walk over to each other and start pinching and pulling, it
was a pretty even match
for a few months. They would fight, retreat and repeat.
I came home one day and the one crab was sitting at the top of a rock
completely out of it's shell. Shortly after the other crab whacked him.
Nasty SOB's. Both were 2+ inches with lots of hair and girth.

I'll tell you what, these crabs can keep a tank spotless.
Ferocious appetite, better than the reef safe crabs.
Another DeathCo...I mean Petco purchase.

"TheRock" wrote in message news:FsHBh.1812$lG6.307@trndny08...
Another DeathCo...I mean Petco purchase.

You must like this store a lot if you purchase so much from them ... ;-)

"Pszemol" wrote in message
...
"TheRock" wrote in message
news:FsHBh.1812$lG6.307@trndny08...
Another DeathCo...I mean Petco purchase.

You must like this store a lot if you purchase so much from them ... ;-)

They have some great deals, sometimes....I'm there for my Golden Retriever
and they suck me in !!!

The last deal I got there was some Macro Algae.
$8 for 4 very large fist full's. Red Garcinia algae