Crab torn to pieces

[davidandliz]

Yesterday i came home to find the small red crab i had in the tank torn to pieces in my tank. I took it as my decorator crab and him had a disagreement. But today i come home and my decorator crab was dead with all its smaller legs pulled off and my starfish has some chunks out of his legs. all my water levels are right . could this be the work of the cowrie i added to the tank? could my peppermint shrimps done this (considering they are larger than the crabs) any help i will gladly take .

 

[nanoreef16g]

I'd say it was the starfish and now he has battle scars.

 

[cmondo]

What kind of fish do you have in there? It could be one of them. Any other inverts that you didn't mention?

 

[mbbuna]

how long has the tank been set up?

do you ever hear a clicking sound coming from the tank?

 

[davidandliz]

only fish we have in the tank are 3 chromis and we dont ever hear clicking . tank has been set up for 3 months now and the only thing new added to the tank was a very larger tiger cowerie.

 

[mbbuna]

it could be another hermit crab. but this is why i asked about the clicking sound

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-03/jf/feature/index.php

 

[davidandliz]

Well i went searching and i found this http://www.saltcorner.com/sections/zoo/1024frameset.htm
and i know both those crabs were slow movers so maybe the cowrie did get them.

 

[Shnabbles]

Are you sure it just didnt Molt?... And starfish will start to disinigrate (get holly) if the PH gets low

 

[davidandliz]

Yea pretty sure . since only thing left on the decorator was his two front legs. and ph we checked and was right on. Another thought i had with the reg crab whgen i seen his legs and top piece lying on the floor was the red carpet got him since the parts were not far from the carpet. when i looked around on diffrent websites about coweries i found a few that said they will eat slow moveing invertabrates and small Anemones when they are larger and this cowerie is about 4 inchs so he is large