White claw hermit / polka dot hermit experience? Safe with other hermits?

[Tired]

White Claw Hermit

White Claw hermits, Phimochirus operculatus, are very colorful, active, Caribbean hermit crabs that are not real common on the market. White claw hermits are algae eaters and will crawl all over the tank picking at algae, much like the scarlet reef hermits do. In the wild they are often found...

www.kpaquatics.com

Anyone kept these before? I have one, with a shell about the size of a walnut. I've seen it upturn other hermits a couple of times and poke into their entrances, but it leaves them alone pretty fast, so I haven't thought much of it. I am now, however, looking at a zebra hermit that only has one leg, and I'm realizing I haven't seen my orange hermit in awhile, or both of my scarlet reef hermits together.

Do we think the white claw hermit might be the culprit? It's the largest invert in the tank, with all the other hermits being smaller than the zebra. I do have a tiger pistol shrimp, a little green hitchhiker pistol, and a couple of tiny hitchhiker gorilla-type crabs, but I doubt any of them really have the oomph to do this. It doesn't even seem to notice the tiger pistol shooting at it, and the small crabs are scared of it.

The poor single-legged hermit is actually moving around reasonably well. It's found a spot under the auto-feeder, so it should be fine until it molts and grows its legs back. And yes, I'm certain the other legs are missing- it's only using one to move, and when it had to flip itself over just now, I could see the stumps of the other legs as it stretched its body out of the shell. I assume there's nothing I can do beyond feeding it and trying to remove whatever did this.

 

[tzabor10]

Hermit crabs are not nice to one another. I frequently have to replace them.