Blue Hermit Killed Red Hermit For Its Shell?

[guppy_man]

In my tank i did have 3 blue legged hermit and one red legged hermit. I have just got home from work and one of the blue hermits is now in the red hermits shell, and the blue hermits old shell is empty.
My question is do you think the blue hermit killed the red for its shell, or has the red hermit been pulled out and is now possibly gone into hiding in the live rock until it finds a new shell?.

I have 4 empty shells in there incase they decided they wanted to change home.

There are no signs of red shell around the tank, and surely if the hermits ate the red they would leave the hard body piecesn and eat the meat?

Confused

 

[Donya]

Are all shells accounted for? For so, there are really only 3 possibilities:

1. There is a naked hermit hiding out somewhere that is afraid to show itself (for good reasons). If you see a naked one, there is bullying going on or you have a sick hermit crab (problems with the abdomen will keep them out of shells sometimes).

2. The hermit died of other causes and the blue hermit claimed the shell. The body may also have just drifted off where you can't see it, but the combination of worms and hermits in most tanks can also destroy a small carcass pretty fast and leave little or no evidence behind.

3. Inter-species aggression, which is unfortunately very common with "red" and "blue" hermits when it is Paguristes cadenati (red) and Clibanarius tricolor (blue). Mixing these in small tanks often results in hermity genocides. It doesn't happen in all tanks, but I've heard so many instances of disaster with those two species that I always advise against mixing them. If your red doesn't turn up again, you it would be a good idea to either leave it at 3 blues or replace with another blue.

 

[guppy_man]

There's 5 empty shells dotted around the tank so i didnt think my hermits would pressure the others for their's.

The red was definitely there this morning, and the blue was picking at its shell because it had algae growth on it.
I think that if it did die i would be able to see it, the tanks not that big, and i can see around all sides of the rock and would be too big to be sucked up by filter.

I'll keep a look out, i hope its in the rocks somewhere so i can at least try and get a shell near it.

Cheers, Gethin

 

[Donya]

There's 5 empty shells dotted around the tank so i didnt think my hermits would pressure the others for their's.

It happens all the time in mixed-species environments. Also, are the shells clean/empty inside? While hermits can clean sand and stuff out themselves, sometimes a shell that's been full of crud for a long time will just be treated like it doesn't even exist until you shake the crud out for them. They also tend to ignore shells that have become home to bristleworms.

 

[guppy_man]

I've just found a small group of bristle stars, stomatella snails and some other snail (dont know what they are) Im pretty sure the red legged hermit has been consumed by those lot.

I'll stick to blue legged hermits i think.


Cheers, Gethin