Hermit crabs and conches

[ScottF]

Do hermit crabs kill conches? I have two tanks. A 250gal and a 15gal. I had a fighting conch in the big tank that would always bury itself in the sand until one day it buried itself and never surfaced again. I assumed that it starved to death because I don't have much in the way of algae in that tank any more. This tank always had hermits.

I have a strawberry conch in the little tank. It never used to bury itself in the sand. I noticed that after I added a few blue leg hermit crabs, the little conch started burying itself in the sand. I haven't seen it in a few days. Not sure if it's still alive.

Do hermits kill conches? Do they have other predators? What about urchins? Does anything attack them?

 

[Reef_at_Sea]

Conches tend to bury themselves for long periods of times, especially when there is alot of surface activity.
I used to have 2 very active conches but since i added more CUC & fish i barely see them, once in a while they resurface.

 

[Reef.]

Halloween hermits definitely kill conchs for their shells and anything else they take a liking to, my electric blue legged hermit doesnt.

Stay away from Halloween, add spare shells for any others and you should be ok.

 

[AlexandraDreadlocksPanda]

Halloween hermits definitely kill conchs for their shells and anything else they take a liking to, my electric blue legged hermit doesnt.

Stay away from Halloween, add spare shells for any others and you should be ok.

Agree 100% with this!

 

[ScottF]

Four months later the fighting conch that buried itself and never resurfaced just resurfaced. I thought it was dead for sure.

It's been cruising around the bottom of the tank since last night like nothing happened. FOUR MONTHS!!!

 

[Reef.]

Four months later the fighting conch that buried itself and never resurfaced just resurfaced. I thought it was dead for sure.

It's been cruising around the bottom of the tank since last night like nothing happened. FOUR MONTHS!!!

Probably just came out at night.

 

[ScottF]

Probably just came out at night.

Nah. I spend a lot of time watching my tank day and night. When it came out it had sand stuck to its shell like it hadn't moved in a while. Like when you pull a piece of rock out of the tank that has been there a long time.

At first I thought it had to be a hemit crab that had moved in, but then I saw it paddling itself across the sand with its conch trunk out eating stuff.