Red leg hermit eats blue maxima?

[Highside]

Has anyone ever heard of a red leg hermit eating a clam? I had a perfectly healthy ultra blue maxima last night when I went to bed and when I woke up this morning there was a large scarlett hermit on top of it ripping pieces out and eating them. Half of the clam was already gone. yesterday my misbar perc. swam into my overflow and a few days before that I scratched the heck out of the front of my tank when I didn't notice a piece of sharp debris under my magnet cleaner. It's been a bad week for my tank.

 

[fishdoc11]

It was most likely already dying. Hermit crabs don't typically eat healthy clams.

Unless of course it was a large red leg hermit(as opposed to a scarlet hermit) that is not reef safe.

Chris

 

[Highside]

They were ordered as scarletts but the one that ate the calm and one other are enormous compared to the rest. It wasn't dying, It was fully extended when I went to bed and half eaten 7 hrs later. I found a few post where other people have had the same problem. Lots of people just don't like crabs of any type, I have always enjoyed mine untill this, this was a huge $$$$$ loss because of a $1 crab.

 

[c_stowers]

FWIW, clams die from the inside out. With that said, it would be hard to tell if one was dying or not by just looking at it externally.

 

[fishdoc11]

To add to what Chris said there is about a 2 month period after buying a newly imported clam that it is very susceptable to just kicking the bucket overnight. This is mainly a hangover from the stress related to shipping and often improper acclimation proceedures...they are very sensitive to changes in SG.

Chris

 

[TOURKID]

I agree about dieing from the inside out....

but... it really suprised me too

 

[Highside]

Those pictures are exactly what happened. Before and 7 hrs later. I only had 1 scarlet munching on it though. None of the other crabs bothered it.