whats eating my snails??

[kpatrick]

I had a pretty bad case of algea a few weeks ago and went out and got some clean-up critters. lately I have noticed that a few of my quarter size turbo snails have been eaten along with some of the scarlet hermits. I cant figure out who is doing it but I will give you a list of inhabitants and maybe someone can help.

-purple tang
-coral beauty
-flame angel
-fuzzy dwarf lion
-lawnmower blenny
10 - emerald crabs
1 - sally light foot
1 - coral banded shrimp
24 - scarlet hermits

any ideas??
my wife has seen the sally light foot playing with the shells but since I havent seen it actually picking on a live snail I hate to blame it yet!

 

[rift-n-reef]

Take the shells out and see if there is any small holes poked in them. There is a good chance that a mantis shrimp got imported into your tank with some live rock. They can be very hard to find too if they are a smaller mantis shrimp. Masters of evasion and hiding themselves. If no evidence of foul play, then I would say there is a problem with the water chemistry perhaps. The presence of small amounts of copper maybe. HTH..

"J"

 

[OrionGirl]

Snails can be picked off by hermit crabs, so unless you've actually seen a reduction in the number of hermits, that would be my first suspicion. CBS can be aggressive as well.

A mantis is a possibility, but you would likely hear it clicking after the lights went out. Very audible.