Snail eating hermits?

[ebosshard]

Thot I saw one of my mid sized blue legged hermits eating one of my snails today.

Is that possible/likely?

 

[hdtran]

Yes, it is. (I read the topic, and I thought you meant the snail was eating the hermit, not the other way around).

There are at least 3 possibilities:
(1) The snail was dead, and the hermit was cleaning it out,
(2) The hermit was hungry, and decided to chase and eat the snail,
(3) The hermit needed a new shell, and decided to fight the snail over the shell.

 

[Len]

Yep, I'll second what Hy said. Hermits are known to eat snails if they're able to catch them. I generally don't trust crabs of any sort, but sometimes they're a necessarily evil.

 

[Simon1]

But if your snails are eating your hemits, get out of the house and call for help.

 

[ebosshard]

len

I enjoy looking at my blue legged hermits. Cool creatures and they like to put on a show for us from time to time (stand up on their legs and walk with shell up in the air).

however, the snails do more work than them in terms of keeping things clean.

they don't seem to be eating all my snails, but dont want this to go badly.

do you recommend ditching the crabs and just letting the snails have at it?

 

[hdtran]

If your hermits are small with respect to your snails, and you have lots of spare shells for your hermits, I think you're safe. I haven't seen my hermits go after my large turbo snails, but I've seen them go after the snails that are appropriately sized (their own size).

 

[ebosshard]

I have two huge hermits, bigger than any snails I have (and I have a few big snails (like the size of a quarter)

 

[Anonymous]

The crab wants a new home...one equiped with a free meal....buy larger snails if possible...i have 4 large turbos...my hermits dont even look twice at them...