Stupid Crabs

[VDub90]

For the last 3 months I have had about half a dozen crabs, couple blue legs, a couple scarlet, a few that look like blue legs but the red and blue bands are in the wrong spot, and 2 bigger green guys. They have all lived with 3 astrea and 3 very small nassarius snails. At Christmas time I went away for a week to come back and find all 3 astrea's upside down, one was still in the shell, but didn't make it. I figured the crabs might have had something to do with it , but thought that the snails just fell over, since the crabs haven't bothered them in the 2 months they have been together. The Nassarius are still doing fine. So on my way home from Christmas break I bought a turbo snail, and 3 more Nassarius, well it only took one night, as the next morning all 4 were on their backs. The turbo snail however was still in it's shell for a few more days but never moved. The day before yesterday I picked up 3 more Nassarius snails, which for 2 days they were doing great, well when I got home today they were all tipped over and 2 were out of there shells. And one of the smaller crabs was definelty picking at it :mad: .There are a ton of empty shells on the tank bottom now as there has always been, what has turned my crabs mad? Are the fake looking blue legs bad? Should I get them out of there?

[Gealcath]

If a hermit crab wants a shell, it WILL get that shell. Its just like someone going shopping for a house, sure there may be lots of houses for sale, but the buyer is usually looking for a specific house type. Same is true with hermit crabs.

[VDub90]

I guess the Astrea shells were the wrong shape for them and the Nassarius were way to small. But the new snails I have bought(6 of them so far)seem to be a perfect fit.

[theuselessfew]

Find a dozen empty hermit crab shells online,and toss them in. Most marine sites have them. Give the crabs some more real estate options, other than the snail shells!

HTH!

[VDub90]

I have always had at least a dozen empty shells of various sizes on the bottom, so selection is not an issue.

[dcflyers7]

Right now I have 3 turbos, 10 margaritas, 6 nassarius, 10 dwarf red legs and 3 scarlets. My tank is 37g BTW... MY LFS sells bags of empty shells, so I bought a bag of small/medium shells, and a bag of larger shells. So far, no snail deaths, and 3 of my dwarf hermits have happily found new homes in the empty shells....

[VDub90]

I'm wondering if it might be something besides the shell thing? They crabs and snails lived fine together for over 2 months, and there has always been a lot of shells in the tank.

[mogurnda]

Occasionally I have had snails simply stop moving and die. Lost a whole batch of astreas at one point, after they had lived in the tank for a few years. I still have no idea what causes it, but I wonder if it's a bloom of toxic algae or dinoflagellates.