Hermit Crab ate my Snail (?!)

Okay- large snail- hermit crab has been all over him for about a week- finally, last night, snail is on the sand and hermit crab is dismembering him. I take the snail out, clean it out- (NEVER nuke a dead snail in the microwave)- and put the clean shell back in. I now have a very proud hermit crab with a new, two bedroom condo. Should I have gotten rid of the crab? Is he going to kill again?

 

Its part of nature.. It will happen again...

 

That's a relief- I thought I had a serial killer on my hands!

 

hehe yeah as they get bigger they will kill the snails for their shells if you dont have any larger shells in there for them. I have a hermit that switches shells on a daily basis. its really neat to watch them hop shells.

 

to avoid this provide the crab with pleanty of shells to move in and out of.
I do this and have never experience hermits fighting each other or killing my snails.

 

all my hermits are killers when they get the chance. i've had about 10 snail casualities due to hermits. even giant mexican turbos fall victim. i even went out and got bigger shells to try to dissuade the crabs to no avail, they prefer fresh snail homes.

i have 2 giant striped leg hermits, about 2" each. they kill even the smaller snails, just to have options.

 

Next time just let him take care of snail shell, meaning don't nuke it he will clean it out just fine. By the way I'm betting it really stunk the house up didn't it! LOL

 

I have about 30 or 40 shells of all different sizes in my my 16 that I bought off Ebay and have still lost at least 10 snails to hermits anyways so for me it didn't work

 

Thats the name of the game your hermits want a new house and they will kill your snails for waht they want. Some will kill your snails not like there new accomadations and move back to thier old shells. So you have a dead snail for nothing.:-/ (hermit crab)