electric blue hermit eating cleaner shrimp shell

[Lester]

hi guys...

my cleaner shrimp just molt and left it empty shell alond the sand bed of my tank.. then came my electric blue hermit ... eating on the empty shell...

this is normal??? i know that electric hermit do eat meat but shell from a just molt shrimp...??? i do not know,......

any expert that could enlighten me ???

[somebody]

maybe it was looking for a calcium enriched diet.... haha... coz there's no calcium tablets for them...

oops.. pls dun take offence. hehe

[Lester]

maybe it was looking for a calcium enriched diet.... haha... coz there's no calcium tablets for them...

oops.. pls dun take offence. hehe

no problems.. just wondering why my hermit doing stunts ....

cheers

[Lester]

anyone can explain ????

[Kelmen]

Actually you may noticed the hermit will eat its own discarded molten shell as well, although not 100% eat the whole thing.

Its quite natural in animal for such behavior, eating some of their own discarded things like shell or skin.

National Geography has many of such documentary.

I believe the "reuse" of the calcium is part of the reason.

[neokn]

All LS that molt will leave their empty shells away from it's hidding place to lure away all possible enemy as they are violable to attack when their protective shell have not harden.

The reason why your hermit is (looks like) consuming the shell because it thought that there's some left over fresh for it to pick out of the shell. It's just as simple as that.

[Lester]

i see.... thanks alots guys for all the advise ...

[WEE2000]

i oso xprience dat my fish wil eat leftover drippings from my coral banded shrimp's shell when i pick it up.

[angmoh]

Other than eating the shells, my eletrical blue leg favourite is snail :\ it had killed 2 of my snails ..

perhaps i think it's time to give it a bigger shell .. hehe

[elimmel]

Other than eating the shells, my eletrical blue leg favourite is snail :\ it had killed 2 of my snails ..

perhaps i think it's time to give it a bigger shell .. hehe

yup, u have to watch out for this if you want your snails to stay alive. drop some empty shells bigger than the hermit's shell into the tank for it to "shift house" when it gets bigger.

caught my electric blue hermit climbing onto one of my snails with kiap kiap ready to evict the snail after lights went off a few days ago.