Hermit crabs got eaten

[jambul]

Hi,

Bought a pair of red hermit crabs on Saturday morning and put them in my FOWLR tank and they were happily eating the algae in the tank but that night nticed that 1 of them came out of the shell and was crawling around totally exposed without the shell. Unfortunately, did not last long and was soon eaten up by the fishes in the tank...foxface and wrasse. The same thing happened to the other one yesterday.

Question:

can anyone tell me why they left the shell? The shells seem big enough for them.

and

how to prevent this from happening?

I want to get more hermit crabs so any advice is helpful.

Thanks

[TayHongSiang]

Hi,

Bought a pair of red hermit crabs on Saturday morning and put them in my FOWLR tank and they were happily eating the algae in the tank but that night nticed that 1 of them came out of the shell and was crawling around totally exposed without the shell. Unfortunately, did not last long and was soon eaten up by the fishes in the tank...foxface and wrasse. The same thing happened to the other one yesterday.

Question:

can anyone tell me why they left the shell? The shells seem big enough for them.

and

how to prevent this from happening?

I want to get more hermit crabs so any advice is helpful.

Thanks

Put a few empty ones in the tank. Cannot be help, they like to change house...haha

[jambul]

Put a few empty ones in the tank. Cannot be help, they like to change house...haha

know where I can get some shells? would those gong gong shells work? those we eat at seafood bbq stalls?

[VelvetAirwaves]

any shell would work (those snail type so they can anchor their body) but make sure its clean . ie, sterilise before put into tank. then just dump a few can already. once they settle on one shell , they usually dont change for quite long. and do check if theres anything in your tank hat is forcing your hermits to come out , cause usually hermit never walk around without shell ( got shell better than no shell )

[peacemaker]

This is indeed quite unusual... hermits depend on their shells for long term survival. Unless they needed to molt, you don't see them crawling around without their shells.

[jambul]

This is indeed quite unusual... hermits depend on their shells for long term survival. Unless they needed to molt, you don't see them crawling around without their shells.

That's what I thought...quite unusual for them to crawl out and be exposed unless the shell was too small...and both come out so soon after I put them in the tank.

very curious to find out why.

[tagie_tag]

mayb wan to preform late show...

[RockyBoy]

That's what I thought...quite unusual for them to crawl out and be exposed unless the shell was too small...and both come out so soon after I put them in the tank.

very curious to find out why.

Probably got shock of new enviroment and different water parameters....