Not sure what happened to my hermit..

[booth2010]

So I've had a hermit crab for around 8 months. He did great for such a long time. I upgraded and after the cycle put him in the new tank, this was about 2 weeks ago. He was doing fine in this new tank it seemed. I woke up today to find my skunk shrimp playing with something but didn't pay any attention to it. Few hours later I noticed the hermits she'll was empty and that it was the shell less hermit the shrimp was messing with. I'm assuming he left his shell during the night and died or was killed by the shrimp, idk. But my guess is that the shell was just too small now and that's why he left. Any other ideas?

 

[Texas Reefer]

Sorry about your hermit! It happens all the time in my tank and I don't know why. I just dump a few more in every so often.

 

[Squishie89]

My best guess is your hermit molted and decided to change shells. Your shrimp was probably messing with the molt.

 

[jayhawk]

My best guess is your hermit molted and decided to change shells. Your shrimp was probably messing with the molt.

+ agreed

 

[Texas Reefer]

Hermits molt!? I'd heard of them changing shells, but molting never occurred to me! Lol. That's relieving to know :-)

 

[booth2010]

Ill keep checking for it but im pretty sure its not a molt, my shrimp just did that and it was pretty easy to tell the difference from up close. Ill keep looking like I said though

 

[Reefing Madness]

Its really tough to tell the difference if you ask me, I've always fereaked out when I found a molt, up until I found the invert in question.