Unexpected outcome to new reefcleaners

I just got my clean up crew from reefcleaners.org and was very excited today. I got them acclimated like instructed and added them to my tank. Imagine my delight seeing all these shells dropping to the bottom of my tank and thinking to myself "my tank is going to be happy with this addition." I was so excited and was afraid that just staring at the tank might make nothing happen (ie water boiling). I come back about an hour later to see one of my blue legged hermit crabs on his back. I wonder whats going on there? He found a tasty dwarf cerith that must have been cooked just to his liking . So far I am 0-2 against the crabs.

I am very happy with the order, I am just not very happy with my blue leggeds that were already in the tank. Has anyone else had this problem? Do I need to do something about my hermits or will it be every man for himself? Either way, that crab got himself a .90 cent meal.... expensive meal, better enjoy it.... almost was his last! Too bad I like those hermits too much.

 

put some easy food for them away from your snails.

bury the FL ceriths.

 

I have a bunch of blue legs, although I'm weeding them out slowly. The only problem I've had is I cannot ever keep a Florida cerith. As soon as they go in the tank, the blue legs dig them out and eat them right of their shells! So, when I order from reefcleaners.org, I stick to the nassarius, nerites, dwarf cerith snails, that's been great for me. I've tried the Florida cerith (the bigger ones) twice now, I won't order them again until the blue legs are gone.

 

That sucks, i really liked my blue legged hermits. They were always fun to watch. I guess I will have to start handling them soon.

 

hermits can be that way sometimes, sorry you ended up with an expensive hermit meal. sometimes they are terrors, some times they are behaved. Crab behavior is very unpredictable, ,but once they go into snail hunting for fun, (not for shells), they tend to stay bad it seems. The only thing you would be able to do, (other than the target feeding already mentioned), is to add empty shells for them to find a home they like. If it was going for a dwarf cerith though, and it wasn't s juvie hermit, chances are he has gone bad, and target feeding is your best bet to keep him from killing again.

 

Lol john you gave me the sane batch then, I still have about 20 or so in my 65g. Lmao they go nuts when I feed my homemade food to the tank its like a buffet line and all of them jump off rocks to get to the sand for the soon to be meal comign to them. I love my hermits and will be getting some more for my fuge soon.

Lol keep the herms well feed, mine are very goofy and have only gone on a killing spree once but that has subsided.

 

I think there is really no rhyme or reason to it. Wish I could figure out a way to take credit for it, but I can't come up with anything. I have a bunch of hermits in my 72 FOWLR and they are pretty good and well behaved. In my first tank I ever had I started with 12 blue legs and 12 nassarius, and ended up with 12 blue legs wearing nassarius shells. Go figure...

 

Over time there have been fewer fights amongst the crew. I have watched several times as a hermit comes up on a snail... then just goes around them. Lets hope it was just a brief dispute that got settled.