Who ate my crab?

I just yesterday got 3 new scarlet hermit crabs, 2 astrea snails and a royal gramma. This morning, I found that one of the crabs was out of his shell, half eaten, it looked like. Based on my profile (that lists my "livestock&quot does it look like I have anything that would like crab for dinner?

 

well, if anybody would have eaten it, it would have eaten it completely IMO.
When you say half eaten, are you sure it really was the crab? Maybe it just molded and you see the leftover skin. They do look very much like a real crab. Did you find the empty shell? if there is no shell I would look around for the crab in the tank. (and don't forget, they do change shells, so there might be an empty shell anyway)
And if it is really dead, then maybe it just died and went out of the shell to die. I had that before. Then the other crabs and the shrimp would nip on it.

 

Well, when I say half eaten, I mean I see the legs and then what looks like the remains of a body next to an empty shell that it was in when I put it in last night. Suppose that it might have just crawled out to die, new environment and all. It was the largest of the 3 so thought maybe it'd be the hariest. Everyone else seems fine, so just crawling out and dying surprises me.

 

Had the same problem... bought 10 of them and i lost about 3 in the weeks following. Same story, crab out of its shell looking bad... My brittle star was happy though, had a good lunch.

Marc.

 

They do kill each other off for shells from time to time. I once saw one of my scarletts rip another one right out of its shell. The "nude" hermit didn't last long with a jawfish in the tank and was promptly swallowed.

 

Whoa, didn't know the little guys were so aggressive for shells. Well, I guess I'll assume that he just crawled out to die, or another one plucked him out. With my fish and inverts, I assume I should have pulled his carcass out - imagine otherwise he'll just decompose and create unwanted ammonia, nitrites etc.

 

I wouldn't go out of my way to remove the carcass but if you can get it out, go ahead and do it. I doubt that one little crab dying would cause any spikes.

 

OK, you'll love this... Was always looking at things through the water and glass. Finally decided to remove the shell to if nothing else reposition it. When I pulled it out of the water - guess who was staring back at me - my crab! I've checked and the other 2 are still roaming in their shells, so hoodoo must have been right - must have just been a molting! Whoo hoo, celebrate and party!! Sorry for the false alarm everyone!

 

Cool! I was under the impression that a molt had been ruled out or it would have been my first guess

 

If I may make a suggestion, I would recommend going to walmart or better yet a craft store and buying a package of shells. You can get them really cheap usually. I did so shortly after getting a bunch of various hermits, it was very entertaining... a bunch of em started switching out shells soon thereafter. Also, don't forget if you do use store bought shells to boil them for a while to prevent any nastiness getting in your tank. I would avoid any dyed shells as well.