Blue Electric - The Murder, The Theft, and the Regret

[jjencek]

I have had an electric blue hermit crab for over a year. I got him a new bigger home several months ago and he loved it. Until ...

5 days ago I got several large Mexican Turbo Snails. The moment the electric blue saw one of the larger ones, he would attached himself to him, flip him on his back and started to try to open him. The snail was pretty well locked inside and I was not worried about him. The crab kept trying to get inside for 3 days.

On the 4th day the snail was gone and the hermit moved in. I found a large piece of the snail on the bottom.

Now the weird thing ... 24 hours later and the electric blue was back in his old shell.

Have you ever seen anything like that?

 

[Maggie321]

Yep. Hermits will massacre snails just to try the shell out. If they don't like it, they'll move back to the old one. I asked my LFS for a handful of spare shells so they can have a plethora to choose from. In the beginning I had hermits kill a couple snails but after they had some other choices, they stopped I think.

Maggie

 

[mndfreeze]

The more shell choices you offer them the less likely they are to kill snails just for a wardrobe try-on.

But generally you should always assume snails are something you are going to replace over time. They die out, get killed, some love to crawl out of tanks and carpet surf or try to surf your pump lines.

Each hermit species has its own preferred shell type as well. The common red legged ones love cerith snail shells and mostly refuse to wear others. I have a left handed hermit who loved margarita and nerite style shells only.

I usually try to get a mix of different shells to scatter around the tank because over time I like to try o get different species of hermits in my tanks. Around here the LFS's only really carry the common red legged and blue legged (calcnius tricolor) and rarely will have electric blues or scarletts.

 

[Evg07]

Hermit crabs are pricks if you ask me. They are cool to watch but you will be better off without them. I moved all of my hermits to my sump about a year ago and my CUC has never been more efficient. I have a fighting conch, around 15 turbos, 10 nassarius and a lawnmower blenny on a 200 galon tank.

Enviado desde mi SM-G950F mediante Tapatalk

 

[jjencek]

Yep. Hermits will massacre snails just to try the shell out. If they don't like it, they'll move back to the old one. I asked my LFS for a handful of spare shells so they can have a plethora to choose from. In the beginning I had hermits kill a couple snails but after they had some other choices, they stopped I think.

Maggie

It moved back to the old one and then to the new one again. I don't know how many times it switched, but it has been in the new one (the one he killed) for the last ten days.

 

[squeakymcmurdo]

I got some sort of green hermit crab from reefcleaners.com a while back and I swear he changes his shell every day. He isn't picky about the shape either. I could probably give him one of those stupid novelty car shaped ones and he would cruise around in it. :lmao:

 

[mndfreeze]

I got some sort of green hermit crab from reefcleaners.com a while back and I swear he changes his shell every day. He isn't picky about the shape either. I could probably give him one of those stupid novelty car shaped ones and he would cruise around in it. :lmao:

Please buy multiple novelty shells and take pics, kthx.

Hermits already look silly as they are, but it's even better seeing them in something like that. haha.

 

[AC_Rhino]

You can buy shells super cheap and in mass from any hobby / crafts store. I bought a bag full of them for $5. Just make sure that you wash them and that they aren't coated or painted.

 

[AC_Rhino]

I also scored dozens of empty periwinkle shells from the beach that the murdercrabs like.