Crabs ate my clam!

[azreefer]

I came home yesterday to find about 4 hermit crabs eating my clam. Has this happened to anyone else? I also have lost two fish in the past week and can't figure out where they went. One was a small green chromis and the other was a med sized Bangai cardinal. The only thing I can think of is that my sally lightfoot ate them. This tank has been set up and thriving for a year now. Everything has been great together untill now. The weird thing is that I didn't see any pieces off the missing fish. I would have thought if the crab got them there would be pieces of them floating around. Has anyone else had any problems like this? Is it time to get rid of the crabs and get a bunch more snails? Is it possible that one of my anenomes may have eaten a fish?

 

[wade1]

Give us a bit more information: what kind of hermit crabs are they?

I am thinking that the reason they were eating it was that it was already dead. I've never seen a living Tridacnid even approached by a hermit...

Wade

 

[azreefer]

The crabs are blue leg hermits. I had the clam in the bottom of the tank ( 14" from light ) and it was doing fine but I decided to move it higher in the tank ( 5" from light ) since I only have power compact lighting. It was fully open and looked great that morning but when I got home, the crabs had it flipped over and were eating it from the bottom side. Should I have left it in the sand so the bottom side would have been protected? I know that I usually see them in a sandbed but I have seen them in different areas in some tanks so I thought it would be ok.

 

[azreefer]

Here's a pic I took when I found them.

 

[wade1]

I'm still betting that the clam was dying when they went for it.... they are extremely sensitive to the smell of "food", but I have never seen an issue with live clams. I've kept deresa, crocea, and maxima with blue and red legs and never seen an issue...

Wade

 

[DeChamp]

That is a good Question "should you leave the bottom of the clam protected?" The clam I have is also elavated. So far no problems. The little blue legs will eat anything dead. But eating a live clam is very doubtful. sorry about your lose.

 

[Anonymous]

I bet raising it killed it. You probably should only move it up 3 - 4" at a time, and wait a week between moves.

Sorry bout your clam. Sucks losing one!

Louey