Sally lightfoot murdered my favorite blue leg hermit then I accidentally crushed him.

I added a sally lightfoot a few weeks ago. I was apprehensive and immediately regretted it after I put it in but figured I would give it a chance to play nice and it did"¦..until last night.

I don't have much in my 75 gallon. 2 clowns, 3 nessarius snails, 3 blue leg, 3 red leg, 1 emerald crab and 1 peppermint shrimp, so I know everybody and have my favorites.

One of the blue legs had become my favorite inhabitant. When I first added him he immediately jacked another crab for it's shell. I almost threw him to the sump, but he didn't hurt the crab, just traded shells with it. It was kind of cute. This guy was terrified of everything at first. When he would see me or my wife coming near he would immediately hide and pretend he didn't exist. Eventually he started getting brave and showing himself more and then would come and say hello when we would feed. He probably had the most personality out of anyone in my tank.

He was my favorite.

I had been keeping a close eye on the sally lightfoot. I just didn't trust it and I started to feel bad about it because it hadn't done anything wrong. It seemed so sneaky but I was giving it a chance and it was playing nice and seemed to keep to itself. In the morning before I left to work I did role call and all was fine. My little blue leg even came out to wish me a nice day. When I got home I saw it's shell but it wasn't moving. Didn't think anything of it, but a couple hours later it still hadn't moved. I took a closer look and saw the sally lightfoot in the corner eating him! I was livid. I went to grab him but he scurried under the rock. I threw apart all my rocks trying to catch him but he was too fast and I lost track of him. I went to bed and would try again when I got home from work. I told my wife I couldn't find him and would look again when I got home. My wife then called me on my way to work and told me she found him and he had been crushed under one of the rocks. I pulled over to the side of the road and just started at my hands for what felt like hours. WHAT HAD I DONE?

I feel like a murderer. It wasn't my intention to kill it. I just wanted to get it and put him up for adoption or take it to my LFS.

It's really eating at me, both the loss of my best friend and my inadvertent curb stomping of his murderer. Revenge feels awful. Empty. So alone. I hope I'm not haunted by their ghosts.
 
Sally lightfoot crabs are one of the nastiest crabs out there for sale.

All crabs are oppertunistic.. if they're short on food they'll take whatever they can easily catch. Sally light foots are extremely fast and can catch fish in seconds despite how small their claws are.. and they get big.

However a hermit crab's death due to another crab would be my last suspect.. when a fish goes missing you can blame the sally.. but I'm surprised that the hermit crab was it's target.
 
I didn't catch the sally lightfoot killing my best friend, but it was hiding in a rock devouring it's body like a maniac. My best friends shell was on a ledge where it had been grazing.

Also, my wife sent me pictures and the crab didn't look like it was crushed, it just looked dead. And it had a red spot in it's belly. She doesn't think it was crushed when I had been trying to catch it and was moving the rock.

Maybe it ate itself to death?
 
Or it molted?

Oh I didn't think about that. Would it stay in the same shell if it molted? What is the process of a molt for a hermit crab?

All I know is that I saw it grazing, then I saw it's shell that hadn't moved in awhile, then I saw the sally lightfoot eating what appeared to be a blue leg hermits body (I saw the blue legs) and all other blue leg hermits were accounted for.
 
When hermits molt, they crawl out of their shell to do it. After that, they crawl back in and hide for quite a while. Sometimes they choose a new shell to crawl into... I'd suggest you wait a bit and see if it turns up.
 
Sally lightfoot crabs are one of the nastiest crabs out there for sale.

However a hermit crab's death due to another crab would be my last suspect.. when a fish goes missing you can blame the sally.. but I'm surprised that the hermit crab was it's target.

Getting the 2 sally's i have in my tank out ASAP!! I've been watching them try to take out my chromis. Also they took out my cleaner shrimp, a red leg hermit, and tried taking out one of my blue leg hermits before I stopped it.

These things should be sold with a warning label...lol. I have 1 sally out of my tank already and now trying to catch the other. They are extremely fast and better left in the ocean.
 
Getting the 2 sally's i have in my tank out ASAP!! I've been watching them try to take out my chromis. Also they took out my cleaner shrimp, a red leg hermit, and tried taking out one of my blue leg hermits before I stopped it.

These things should be sold with a warning label...lol. I have 1 sally out of my tank already and now trying to catch the other. They are extremely fast and better left in the ocean.

This thread is from a month ago.:)
 
I had one sally with a damsel and my calappa calappa.. and when I moved him he lived with some clarkii clowns.. he fell victum to the system crash in my 55.. along with my precious calappa calappa..

When I had him in a holding tank he did rather fine in the semi-aggressive 10 gallon as damsels can hold their own and swim.. definitly something I'd NEVER add in any main systems of mine.
 
So I managed to purge the 2 sally's. One was easy as it was in the front of the tank harassing one of my blue leg hermits. The other one I had to tear the rock island out it was hiding in. Glad to say that I am now sally free! The other fish seems more mellow now too.
 
How did you make out GoldenAge? Did your favorite blue leg turn up freshly molted?

No, he's a goner. I went through the stages of grief. Currently in acceptance. I even buried his old shell so nobody else could use it. I think about him everyday. :sad2::sad2:
 
Back
Top