Hemrit crabs dieing

Discussion in 'Inverts' started by jeremy79, May 2, 2007.

to remove this notice and enjoy 3reef content with less ads. 3reef membership is free.

  1. jeremy79

    jeremy79 Astrea Snail

    Joined:
    May 2, 2007
    Messages:
    36
    yeah I was thinking about raising salinity, just worried if it would affect my coral. I really new to this....4 months! thanks for the advice though. Dont know about the voltage, dont really have anything to check it. would it been the reason why my scooter died also? I was thinking cuz of the frozen food ( I read somwhere the food has to thaw 1st, didnt do that)
     
  2. Click Here!

  3. My2heartboys

    My2heartboys Fire Worm

    Joined:
    Aug 9, 2005
    Messages:
    174
    ________________________________________________________________

    Start raising it, but very slowly. I would take at least 2 weeks to get it up. As for stray voltage go to your LFS and get a grounding probe and install it. That would be one way to eliminate the possibility. As for the food, before you buy any fish ask your LFS what they are feeding. When asking be specific like what kind and what brand. And yes, I would certainly thaw any frozen food before feeding it. Better yet, if you can use flake or pellet food it won't add as many nitrates and phosphates to your tank--but for acclimation I would feed what ever the LFS feeds.

    When I talk about acclimation, I don't neccesarily mean the immediate acclimation that we do to get the critter into the tank. I am speaking of the following weeks that it takes for them to become more acustomed to the system.

    Anne
     
  4. Tangster

    Tangster 3reef Sponsor

    Joined:
    Aug 16, 2006
    Messages:
    5,644
    Location:
    Va/Ct
    I'm with you on that one I keep as few hermits as possible I try to keep my hermit level at 1 or maybe 2 per 5 gallons of tank size I keep plenty of snails. I don't totally trust any type of crab in that they are opportunistic feeders and they will sometimes eat whats at Claw's reach..
     
  5. JetEngineMech

    JetEngineMech Feather Duster

    Joined:
    Feb 13, 2006
    Messages:
    243
    Location:
    Winsted, CT
    Ahh, yeah I gotcha. I had one die and two others were "disposing of the body." I always wondered if the crab died and they were cleaning it up or if they killed it.
     
  6. jeremy79

    jeremy79 Astrea Snail

    Joined:
    May 2, 2007
    Messages:
    36
    Well just a little update w/ the crabs. LOL. So I moved them myself. One turned around, hasnt moved again after that. The other one moved an inch, but then walked back to the new spot I put it. Also hasnt moved again since. Agh. But they alive still!
     
  7. SuperScro

    SuperScro Flamingo Tongue

    Joined:
    Apr 30, 2007
    Messages:
    116
    Location:
    South Jersey
    My hermits were also very inactive when I first got them. My tank was new. i also believe my salt was at 1.025.
    I think the crabs will kill each other if they need their shell or are just starving. I saw a blue leg hermit cleaning out a red leg hermits shell, eating hte dead hermit and taking the shell. I don't trust them. I had a hitchiker crab in the tank also, but he went after the snails mostly, or what I noticed. However I crushed him with a rock so It might not have been him.
     
  8. Click Here!

  9. njdevilsfan

    njdevilsfan Flamingo Tongue

    Joined:
    Feb 23, 2007
    Messages:
    107
    i would try to add a ton of carbon to your tank
    im wondering if somehow something bad got in your tank
    if you ran a lot of carbon for a few days i think it might help
    just my 2 cents
     
  10. djnzlab1

    djnzlab1 Aiptasia Anemone

    Joined:
    Dec 15, 2006
    Messages:
    567
    Location:
    Va Beach, Va
    Sorry for your loss.

    HI,
    You need to take a water sample to your LPS and have nitrite, nitrate, NH3, your CA, KH checked and maybe phos.
    With any new system the water is constantly sliding around,
    Inverts are very sensative to heavy metals, things like copper. Many water supplies have copper pipes even Di water stores.
    Crabs are very sensative to drastic changes in water, if you add any water that has a diffeence in spec grav or PH/KH they will hide for days.
    If you water is off Crabs die before fish.
    Sorry better let your tank coast a bit more and recheck the water before adding more animals they can't handle stress or shock very well.Take it slow you don't want to waste your money on critters that die.
    Doug
    I doubt that this has occured but if any item in the tank has ever been in any type of soap it will kill things slowly sometimes we want to wipe off that salt on the tank or cover and if you spray any type of cleaner one tiny drop hits the water. DOA I had a friend who cleaned his tank and tried to scrape the salt off with a cleaning pad, and didn't know that it was impregnated with a type of soap he had to scrap the tank it was contaminated and could't be rinsed enough to make it safe.
     
  11. djnzlab1

    djnzlab1 Aiptasia Anemone

    Joined:
    Dec 15, 2006
    Messages:
    567
    Location:
    Va Beach, Va
    HI Scooter Gone

    HI,
    I noted that you mentioned you lost a scooter bleemy, they need lots of those little critters that live in the sand, they don't eat flake or frozen very well so he may hav starved to death. I wouldn't try a scooter without a healthy reforgium loaded with critters .
    saltwater I am finding out isn't very forgiving start small and let it run for a few months then only add one thing at a time watch for problems.
    I had way to many animals::) and they just started having all kinds of problems cause the water was going bad. Now I just let it coast and keep an eye on KH and CA/ mg and everyone is looking great and growing.
    Doug
     
  12. jeremy79

    jeremy79 Astrea Snail

    Joined:
    May 2, 2007
    Messages:
    36
    I was thinking about getting sand to mix w/ my crushed coral. Would it be disasterous if I got some live sand to mix with it. I was gonna just pour it into my tank and mix it with whats left of my livestock. I dont ever see and pods around so maybe that will grow some?