One of my turbos died Saturday night. But the funny thing about having at least a partial ecosystem going is that death for one means a buffet for the rest. I found 5 hermit crabs cleaning up the remains Sunday morning, with the emerald crab hovering in the back hoping for a shot at an easy meal.
A lot of people, when they come upon the sight in my photo, immediately jump to the conclusion that the hermit crabs have slain a snail. They start pulling their hair out and gnashing their teeth, begin pulling every crab they can find out and tossing them in the trash.... Calm down people. This is why you bought a cleanup crew. Something happened to that snail but it wasn't death by hermit crab. Perhaps it was stressed from the transition to my tank. Maybe it was old, diseased, who knows?
I'm not saying there aren't bad critters that you do not want in your aquarium. It's just that anthropomorphizing doesn't help -- do your research and keep an eye on them before smiting. Even the guys you don't want in there are not "evil" or "bad"... they are just doing what they were born to do. They didn't get together and hatch an evil plot, they just went towards the smell of food. And some of the nastier looking ones are just fine despite your initial gut reaction.
After all, I didn't have to clean a thing.
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