Crabs riding snails?

[BlindZide]

Is it normal for crabs to hitch rides with snails up the side of the tank almost to the top? This happened Thursday and it seemed the crab was cleaning the snails shell but man were they really high up! The crab was circling the snail shell going around and around and around and I for some reason was a little worried the crab might hurt the snail so I removed him from the snail. For future reference, will this hurt the snail at all?

[whiteshark]

It won't hurt the snail until the crab decides to eat it, which is probably a matter of time.

[BlindZide]

Oh wow, my crabs will eat my snails? Now that is just rude. If my crabs eat my snails, how would I go about keeping my glass free of algae then? I'm heading to my LFS to grab another powerhead in anticipation of my SmartWave Controller arriving on tuesday. I could grab something different than snails then.

[Timidfish]

I have some new snails that cleaned my conch snails. And have moved on to the glass. I have hermit crabs that clean anything it can get too. I guess its normal. I was told to knock my crabs off as best I can when they are on something that is cleanlike snails so they don't eat them.

[BlindZide]

OK. Thats what I did. I reached in and knocked up off. Thanks!

[whiteshark]

Are they hermits? They will kill snails from lack of food or for a bigger shell. Keeping empty shells of varying sizes for the hermits to move into as they grow will greatly reduce the risk of the crabs eating the snails.

[Baldguy]

Snails will never keep your glass free of algae. They will leave squiggly trails though. Magfloat.

[hollister]

Lazy snails. Yes ive seen this myself.

[BlindZide]

They do leave trails but for the most part they do pretty well. All I want them to do is basically keep my back glass as clean as possible. I scrub my front and side. They like to crawl over my rocks as well so they have plenty to eat. The crabs are Mexican RTCs. My livestock is in my signature. There are shells to move into but maybe not enough of them. I'll have to grab some more.

[RMP]

Pretty common for me. I hang sea lettuce for my turbo snails, and my green emerald crabs catch a ride with them to get to the lettuce.