Collector Urchins Eating Snails? Do They Do This?

[fishlette]

got a couple of quick questions...

the first day we had out stained collector urchin, i found him with one of my snails stuck to him. i didnt worry cause ididnt think it would hurt them. a few hours later when he dropped all the items he was carrying, i noticed the snails wasnt moving so i picked it up and the shell was empty so, did the urchin eat my snail or had? i had only had them about 8 hours so i didnt think it could have died and decomposed in that time.

then yesterday he had one of my hermit crabs stuck to him? this time i reached in and removed the crab as i was worried that it would hurt the crab in some way too.

are the renowned for doing this or once again, am i being paranoid lol

also, how will i recognise aptasia? on the bottom of one of my pieces of rock there is what looks like a really small anemone. its pale pink and has longish, thin arm thingies (can you tell im a marine newb...thingies is a word used to describe most things marine at the moment lol) the arms ar just around the perimeter of the base and there are about 8 of them i think. the arms kinda seem to have a couple of white bands/spots maybe. its very very small though really.

 

[SkiFletch]

Urchins will not eat snails or crabs. More likely that the snail died, was eaten by a hermit crab, and then the urchin just happened to pick it up to use as camoflage. And for the aiptasia, can you post pics here? Or lookup some on the net and decide for yourself?