Emerald Crab and Wrasse eat Hermit Crab

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Particleman

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Oct 23, 2004
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Irvine, CA
Hello...I'm finally starting to relax a little after having my new fish for more then a couple days. They are a six lined wrasse and false percula clown. Both seem to be eating well and playing around in the tank. Shortly before I added the fish I added a clean up crew from an online shop which consisted of 10 Scarlet Hermit Crabs and 10 Blue Legged Hermit Crabs, 3 Emerald Crabs and a couple brittle stars as well as a few different snails. Unfourtantly I've lost 3 red leg hermit crabs over the past few days. One arrived DOA, the other died after about a day later and one I noticed last night was out of its shell. All the other critters seem to be doing fine. What's sorta distrubing to me was the emerald crabs love the dead hermit crabs. In fact last night my wrasse and one emerald crab were sorta going at it over the carcass. Is this usual?? I was sorta worried my wrasse would be injured by the crab. Should I be worried or is this sorta nature at work? Both the fish and the inverts are being fed once a day, Formula 1 and Formula 2 pellets. Any thoughts?
 

DEdwards

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Nov 11, 2004
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Natural. The emerald is a natural scavenger and will eat pretty much anything it finds. Be that his food, left over fish food or even a half alive friend. Wrasse probably thought it was normal food so it went for it. Only my guess on the wrasse but the emerald and any other scavenger will enjoy the snack.
 

AW2EOD

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Jun 14, 2004
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Wrasse are natural invert eaters. When I first purchased my 8" Red Coris Wrasse, I did not know this. I had aprox. 30 Blue Legged Hermits in my 200gal. tank the night I put my Red Coris in.

The next day, I awoke to find the bottom of my tank littered with hermit shells. Out of the 30 hermits that I had, only 6 survived.

Back to your Red Hermit carcass. In my tank, now, I have six 4" Red Legged Hermits. These were the only guys I could find that could hold their own against the fish in my tank. The other day, I noticed one was trying to switch shells. He didnt do it quick enough...lol. My Red Coris noticed him, and was killing him before I knew it. Later, when I went back to the tank, I saw that the barely eaten carcass was in the corner of the tank, and another Red Legged Hermit was actually buying it in the sand. I sat and watched this for a while...very strange to me. Later...I noticed the Red Coris digging it up, and shared his meal with my Dog Faced Puffer.

Pretty much every Wrasse that you find (unless they're specifically marked "reef safe") will eat inverts.
 

Particleman

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Oct 23, 2004
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Irvine, CA
Well actually I did find it pretty fascinating to watch but my wrasse hasnt harmed any inverts yet. Oddly enough...one of the green emerald crabs either died suddenly, or was takin out by one of my brittle stars. Kinda hard to believe a brittle star could take out a emerald crab that was fairly big. It's not a green brittle star after all. Perhaps it just stumbled upon the carcass?? Nature is an interesting beast
 
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