bad crab? how bad, really? pics

[tiger johnson]

Whats killing my snails???
So I moved in with a girl for two years and left my tank here. Now I'm back and ALL my snails are killed off, we bought 300 turbos from reeftopia less than a year ago, 250 or so went into my 100 gal. Something is eating them, can this little guy do it, or should I be putting my 11" engineer goby in my sump? The other day I saw my engineer grab a couple of tiny hermits and yank them back under the rocks, kinda surprised me?
My brother told me two days ago he saw a little pale crab in my tank, I saw him today, his mistake... I'm a bit quicker than him!
This little guy is only 1.25" across his body. pale in color. pointy little claws, best I can tell- family Xanthidae
but, could this little bugger take down 1-2 (closer to two) snails a day?

 

[cy88]

I cannot confirm, but I have a small size blue legged hermit crab, he broke down my turbo snail in 1-1.5 hour and took it's shell! Therefore I would think that he can if he wants to.

 

[pagojoe]

Hey Tiger,

Unless your 100 looks like a kelp forest, I'd guess that most of your turbos starved. I'm no crab guy, but I doubt that little fella killed 250 turbo snails. Leslie can probably give you an ID on him, and tell you more about him.

Cheers,



Don

 

[tiger johnson]

they were tiny, maybe a half inch across. I've always had a decent amount of greens for them. but... if that were the case(and thanks for the input) wouldn't some of them die off until they reached a balance with the food supply, not every last one? I did find a tiny nerite snail in my sump, thats something to smmile about for me

Then there's that monster that looks like a damn eel now(my engineer goby) he's just shy of a foot long! I think he may have something to do with the disappearance of all my snails.

 

[tiger johnson]

ttt for some new eyes to peer upon my query

 

[ahullsb]

Here are some links to good crab id pages

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/reefs/guamimg/crustacea/xanthidae/index.html

http://home2.pacific.net.ph/~sweetyummy42/hitchcrabs.html