blue legged hermits eating snails?

[statman]

I have a 10 gallon tank going and i had 5 snails (i dont remember what variety, 3 with large dark shells, and 2 with small white ones) along with 5 hermits and two damsels.

Yesterday I noticed one of the smaller white snalls upside down, and today he is still there so Im assuming he is dead. Shortly after noticing I saw his buddy the other white snail zooming acrost a rock. Zooming? Yeah, zooming. So I got a closer look and realized a hermit had invaded this shell, so now both of my smaller white snails are dead.

Are salt water hermits the same as other hermits in the fact that they grow and need larger shells? I have some small shells from the ocean that Im going to throw in because I dont want anymore deaths. I just dont recall reading about anyone mentioning having to do this.

 

[TRe]

yes u need to have a variety of differant size shells for them to grow into other wise just like u mentioned they will steal shells whether the snails are dead or alive ... just another reason why my reef is hermit free

 

[Lotus]

Unfortunately, hermits will attack snails if there aren't new shells for them. Sometimes they'll kill snails just for fun. Hermits will eat anything dead in a tank, including snails or fish (which is a reason they're useful).

I have about 5 hermits in my 125g tank, just for fun, but I probably won't replace them as they die off.

 

[azfishgal]

My girls wanted hermit crabs for our tank, so I put them down in the refuge/sump. I have a brittle star, Cerith and Nasarius (sp?) snails, emerald crabs and two cleaner shrimp that eat anything that may die. Unfortunatley two of my female Anthias died. All I found of one of them was her hallow head and her spine. So that told me a had a pretty good clean up crew without hermits. *thumbsups

 

[statman]

I somehow never read about this before, oh well, i know now ;d I threw in some old shells I had from a beach, hopefully they will choose those over the alternative.

Thanks for the info

 

[CoolWaters]

i hate hermit crabs....waste of money!!!they gave me nothing but headaches...
i had 5 and its down to 1 thank god...i gave it to my cousin and we forgot about it for 2 months...no water movement/light/heater....and omfg its still alive

Nasarius FTW!!!

 

[statman]

i personally love the hermits, they did an absolutely AMAZING job on some brown algae I had. I was really impressed. Also as it turns out, the hermit did not kill a snail an use its shell like previously thought, because I saw all the snails crawling around the other day. I guess he just came with a different shell than all the other hermits.