Damn hermit crab killed my clown?!?!

[Mr.Pickles]

Has anyone heard of hermit crab killing a small clown fish?? I think mine just did!! How the hell could he even catch the clown? Sneek up on him??? I put three new clowns in my tank, and like 2 hours later the crab had one! The other 2 clowns are fine and eating a lot and it has been a few days now. Should I get rid of the crab? The clowns like to hover under the LR near the bottom of the tank. The crab is aggresive toward my snails and other crabs. Could the crab sniped him, or was the clown sick or something??

 

[bluerug]

Wow i have never heard of a hermit killing a clown, unless it was a strawberry,lol. But i have no idea what happend to the clown, sorry for your loss.

 

[skippy2]

I wouldn't think the crab would have killed your clown unless the clown was already dieing.

 

[dvarner32]

What size was the crab? How big are the clowns? What size tank? My guess would be that because you put 3 clowns in one tank the other 2 killed the weakest one. They tend not to like each other if there is more than 2. You end up with a highlander situation "there can only be one". I don't know of hermit crabs being adapt hunters like a sally lightfoot or a large emerald crab. My guess would be that the fish died first, or was beat up so much that he got stressed and didnt have the energy to swim away. By that point (if that was the case) the damage would have probably been irreversible anyways.....wait, I'm re reading your post...2 hours??? I don't know then, anything is possible, I'm still leaning towards other forces at work besides the hermit crab.

 

[Mr.Pickles]

I put 3 clowns about 2 inches long in a 55 gallon tank with 25lbs of LR that has been up for about 3 months. The crab is about 2 inches long also.

I just read on a few websites that hermits can attack and kill live fish if they catch them, usually when the fish sleeps. It went on to list some dangerous species of hermits but I don't even know what kind I have. I think the accused hermit is a Hawaiin Zebra Hermit, he has big white claws and is kind of striped black and white and only like an inch or two long. But the clown was only 2 inches long also!

That makes sense, but they were all getting along it seemed like. In fact, the one clown that was a loner is still alive. The other 2 clowns (1 of which died) swam together all over the tank, and it didn't look like they were being aggressive.