Hermit crabs eat up Nerites?

[kzaveri19]

I bought a CuC from reefcleaners.org recently. The behavior of the nerites has been strange. They bunch up near the loc line / overflow and try to "jump" out of the tank at night.

Worse still, they hermit crabs seems to enjoy ganging up on, killing, and eating these nerites. I've lost about half a dozen already.

Is this typical behavior or am I doing something wrong?

 

[badbreath]

I'd say typical. Many people will not put hermits in their tanks at all. I doubt they are trying to escape the crabs they just like to climb over the edge especially easy for them in rimless tanks.



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[PsychoticBeauty]

Nerites are tidal snails I believe, so what your seeing at the top of the tank is quite normal. As far as the hermit crabs feasting on your snails go, this is normal too unfortunately. IME one hermit crab to every 25-30 gallons seems to level out the playing field so to say.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2003/9/inverts

 

[Dkuhlmann]

The only safe hermit crab and is also the only crab of any kind that I will allow in my tank is the scarlet hermit. All of the others are murderous bastards :hammer:

 

[kzaveri19]

Yeah man. I won't be replacing these. Just the snails for me :~

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I moved all of mine into the sump along with the Emerald crab. Not many hermits left, and I won't be replacing them either.