Can Snails And Hermit Crabs Live Together? (7 Cool Facts)

Can snails and hermit crabs live along? Many symbiotic relationships between them are why many pet owners say they can live together. It is important to know whether you keep them together or not.

Can snails and hermit crabs live together? Of course, they can live together. They have a symbiotic relationship between them. In this way, both hermits and snails live together without any problem.

In this article, we will discuss whether snails and hermit crabs can live together, the symbiotic relationship between hermits and snails, and many other things related to these. Let’s dive into the details of can snails and hermit crabs live together.

Can Snails And Hermit Crabs Live Together?

Snails and hermits have many relationships in the wild. It means that they can live together and benefit from each other. Symbiotic relation means that they can live and get benefits from each other. Hermit uses the shell of snails to live, and they don’t harm the snails. They use the discarded shells when they have outgrown the original home.

Crabs have many anatomical features, making them good to accommodate the snail’s shells. The shells of snails have coiled shapes. Crabs also have coiled abdomens. The body of hermit crabs is asymmetrical. This makes them live comfortably without any issue. They have gripping pads that are useful for gripping inside the shells, and these pads appear on limbs.

When hermit crabs are in captivity, they behave differently because they are not in their natural habitat. It means that in captivity, they may not live together when they have nothing to eat or move into the large shells.

But the above case is very rare. This can only happen if anything in the environment is not favorable. They may react and don’t live together in this way. But in wildlife, they live together, and they have a symbiotic relationship between them.

Will Hermit Crabs Eat Snails?

Crabs are opportunistic feeders. Hermit crabs can eat snails. In many cases, they kill snails for new homes. They can eat the snail when they do not have anything to eat. Many species of hermit are there that don’t eat snails. The hermit crabs with blue legs are more aggressive than those with red legs.

What Is The Relationship Between Hermit Crabs And Snails?

Many anatomical features are there in hermit crabs that make them live inside the shells of snails. This is the symbiotic relationship between them in which crabs bet benefits from their partner, and in return, they don’t harm his partner. They have a coiled body that makes them fit inside the shell of snails.

Why Do Hermit Crabs And Snail Shells Live Together?

It is because of the symbiotic relationship between them. As we know, that shell is very important for hermit crabs to live a long life span. When there is a shell, it acts as a barrier between many things that are not good for them. So, they live inside the shell of hermit crabs. Hermit crab tanks should have many spaces to move freely as they move in the wild.

Will Blue Leg Hermits Eat Snails?

Will hermit crabs kill snails? Yes, they will eat the snail when they change their home. They are more aggressive as compared to the other members of hermit crabs. That is why they may eat the snails and harm them by killing them.

Do Hermit Crabs Live Better In Pairs?

Yes, hermit crabs do live better in pairs. They are entertaining, intelligent pets. The Hermit crab is a social animal. They like to live with other crabs and live in pairs.

Hermit Crab Out Of Shell

When there is no shell, it results in more susceptibility to getting issues because the shell acts as a barrier between the exoskeleton and the external environment. Without it, there may be several issues. They change their shell when they are going to molt.

Hermit Crabs As Pets

They are well-known family pets, and the hermit crab is also a social creature. They use the shell for protection. It would be best if you took care of hermit crabs. In this way, they can become your good friends and partners. They can live about thirty years because they have a longer lifespan than other pets. But this life span is only possible if there is proper care for them.

Can Hermit Crabs Live Together?

Can snails and hermit crabs live together? They are adaptable to live in tropical environments. The Hermit crab is a social creature. They are happy to live in groups and pairs. You can choose the terrarium that has five gallons of space. Five-gallon space is for two crabs.

The terrarium should have a hood to maintain the humidity level that is very important for hermit crabs to live in the enclosure.

You can own hermit crabs that have different sizes in the enclosure. But it should be spacious and seep inside. So the larger hermit crab can molt inside the rank when they need to. You need to provide them with good space to move easily inside the tank like they can move freely in the wild.

Hermit crabs are social animals, and they get sick and anxious when they are alone. So, to save from separation anxiety, you can own two to three hermit crabs in one tank.

Do Hermit Crabs Eat Snails?

They are opportunistic feeders, and they can eat the snails. Many species don’t eat the snails, but red leg crabs can eat the snails because they are more aggressive than the blue leg hermit crabs. They can eat anything in winter like

• Food Particles
• Invertebrates like plankton and worms
• Small fishes

Snails are not the preferred food for hermit crabs. But when you don’t feed hermit crabs with food, they can eat snails. That is why it is best practice to give them food recommended by the vets. In this way, they will not eat hermit crabs. 

They don’t kill the snails, but when they have a competition to get the new shell, then they may kill. Competition may be due to when there is less availability of shells. But this condition only happens in wildlife with less availability of shells.

Do Hermit And Snails Get Along?

Yes, hermit and snails do get along. They have a mutually beneficial relationship when they are in the wild. But when they are in captivity, then it can be problematic.

• Food for hermit crab
• Shell availability
• Hiding spots that are used as a refuge

Can snails and hermit crabs live together? When they are in captivity, snails get sacred and threatened by hermit crabs that hermit crabs may kill them for food and shell in extreme conditions. It would help if you gave them the favorable and right environmental conditions to save both species from any harm.

As we know, that habitat is not the natural environment. It can be stressful for them and make them nervous. If you want to keep both of them in one place, you need to do the following things.

• Keeping both species well-fed
• It would help if you gave them many hiding spots like wooden accessories and plants
• Provide the varieties of shells that have different looks from snails in this way this is less confliction.

Without all the above conditions, if you want to keep both pets in one place, it is very problematic for you and both of them.

Final Verdict On Can Snails And Hermit Crabs Live Together

Yes, snails and hermit crabs can live together if you keep both of them well-fed, provide them with many hiding spots and give them shells in which Hermie can live. Make sure they all have favorable conditions to co-exist in captivity.

As a pet lover, make sure to learn about pet more and give your pet hermit crab a good and comfortable life!

Rajkumar Ravichandran

Welcome to Learn About Pet. My name is Rajkumar Ravichandran and I love all pets, travel, and amazing food. I write about my passion and personal experience caring for multiple pets in this blog! ❤️