Dead Hermit Bodies

[Schwe]

I added 10 zebra hermits to my 90 gallon tank almost two weeks ago. They seemed to be doing well, munching away at some small spots of algae I have on my rocks. There are also 10 Nassarius snails and one Astrea in the tank. Fish in the tank are: 2 Ocellaris clowns, 1 chromis, and 1 diamond goby.

About 5 days after adding the hermits, I found a skeleton on top of a nassarius snail. At first I thought it was a hermit stealing a snail's shell, but then noticed the snail underneath was alive. I pulled the skeleton out and assumed a hermit had shed. I took pictures of the hermit I pulled out, but my camera is not working properly and I can not upload pictures to my computer right now. After further investigation, I felt that the claws seemed too dense to be a shed.

I found another dead body on the rockwork the other day. I can't figure out what the problem is... both remains seem to be from male hermits (large claw). Maybe they're fighting and I'm finding the losers of these skirmishes? All snails are intact, so that can't be it.

Also, the dead body is neve near its shell. I've found one shell on a rock and then a day later a body on an adjacent rock. The other time I found the body on top of the snail on the sand bed, and then later found the shell on the other side of the tank?

What is going on?

 

[7808]

when mine shed it looked just like a set of feet and claws, didnt look like "shells" of them if you know what i mean

 

[2farNorth]

Sound like molts to me...

What does the body of the 'dead' crab look like?

The crabs molts are just the 'front' half of the crab, and doesn't inlude the large back half, the half that coils inside the shell.....

 

[Schwe]

hmm.. maybe they ARE molts. It seemed to be the front half of the crab, with a clear soft edge where the back half would begin. But then where are they, and why are there empty shells?

 

[2farNorth]

Did you happen to check at nite? It seems most of my hermits come out at nite and pick around.... it really is surprising where they can hide.... May want to add some extra shells for the crabs...

The first time I seen crab molts I thought for sure it was dead crabs... eye sockets and all... kinda neat....

It is possible still that something is eating them... crabs are most vulnerable when they are molting... ever see any of the fish picking at the crabs at all? They may wait until they're molting...

 

[Schwe]

I'll have to turn off the lights early tonight and check on them. Thanks for the replies, 2FarNorth!!

 

[TheBChamp]

Yeah I was affraid of the same thing this morning.. I started off with 4 Hermits back in Sept.. 2 died, and have had the other 2 ever since... but this morning I saw one running around like crazy without its shell before the lights came on.. Then later I saw a body but not sure if its a molt, and the lights were on at that time. Have you guys ever seen a hermit running around without a shell like he's on a mission? I have a bunch of empty shells lying around.
I hope he's all good.. Will have to check tonight