Hermit crabs keep dying?

[Aquat]

Whenever my crabs have to shed it's shell, it's pretty much defenseless till it finds a new one. I usually get loose shells for free at my lfs but I keep finding dead remains of hermit from time to time. I'm down to my last 5.

Anyone have trouble like this? I have plenty of loose shells lying around the sand bed but none seems to be able to find it's way there.

 

[scuzy]

Maybe a fish or worst a mantis?

 

[RA]

What are your water paramaters?

 

[Aquat]

I know it's not my water parameters. Probably my Damsels but they're all gone now.

 

[Khemul]

What type of hermits? Sounds like they are being picked off when molting. Which could be a fish or it could well be the other hermits.

One thing about the shells. The shells you are offering them, do they ever switch to them that you know of? Hermits can be very picky. You can dump in enough shells to turn it into a substrate, but if it isn't the type they want then they'll ignore them. For instance, I have some larger hermits. They LOVE Crown Conch shells. I can leave half a dozen Fighting Conch shells and some Tulip Whelk shells in the tank and they won't even consider them. Toss in a single Crown Conch shell and they'll go to war on top of a pile of perfectly good homes over that single shell. It's quite possible that yours are still fighting over homes, even though there are plenty of free alternatives.