Doh!

[SkiFletch]

Ok so I had my first invert death today and I'm wondering if anybody has seen this before... One of my red legged hermits is quite dead on the middle of my substrate. Its without shell. All I see is his dead body and his shell is nowhere in sight. DOes this mean one of his bretheren killed him for his shell? Or did something else decide he needed a killing? And if another crab did take his shell, where's his old one? DId he drag it into a hole in the rockwork and do his shell raiding there?

 

[crazyelece]

It could just be a molt. If it did die, it was probably due more to natural causes or another more aggressive hermit. It happens, you just have to replace or add a few every so often.

 

[Aquascaper]

To tell if it's a moult or not check if there's any flesh behind the legs, a moult will be just hard body parts, a death includes soft bits too.

If you have Blue legs they may be the culprit if it's a death

 

[SkiFletch]

Oh, no fleshy stuff, just the legs and a little wavy lookin stuff coming off the back of it, definitely not fleshy though. I shoulda put two and two together there, all crustaceans have to molt. Sometimes I amaze even myself

 

[pleder]

I had a nudist hermit in one of my nano tanks. Thing would ditch his shell bathe in the ligh and then return to it's home. I also have seen hermits pull each other out of there shells even if the agressive hermit is to large for the smaller shell.

Sounds like this was a molt, they do that.