FIGHT!!! Hermit vs Nassarius

[GigaFish]

So I was sitting here watching my tank with the moonlights on tonight and I noticed one of my nassarius snails come creepin around the rockwork.

All of a sudden one of my hermits appeared out of nowhere and grabbed hold of the nassarius snail. Then the snail started flipping out.... I mean going absolutely crazy, flip flopping around like a fish out of water to the point where the crab had no choice but to let go and the snail took off leaving the crab upside down trying to figure out how to flip himself back over.

I have never seen a snail move that fast. And in all the excitement I feel like I missed out on 50% of the whole situation because I was struggling to grab my 24" kent pro scraper to fling the crab into the next dimension. The snail burried himself under the sand so quick that I didnt even have a chance to see of the crab clipped his little trunk off or anything.

Has anyone ever witnessed anything like this?

 

[pagojoe]

Yep. Nassarius snails are pretty fast crawlers, but when they start doing somersaults trying to escape a predator, it almost looks like they're in a frenzy. He probably didn't get his "trunk" clipped off (fish will sometimes bite off the end of the siphon, but crabs usually can't pinch them off) but he probably did get pinched/cut. Lots of snails show scars from encounters with predators. They usually survive OK.

Cheers,


Don

 

[momolicious]

so hermits attack and eat snails for food or what

 

[Myrddraal]

Hermits will attack snails for food, housing, or fun.