poor hermit crab!

i woke this morning 2 find 1 of my blh crabs in bits eaten! tank 2 month old all peacefull tank mates 2 clowns, manderine and purple firefish, emraldcrab, what cud have happened? no shell near bits of crab? thanks

 

Sorry for loss

 

It may be in fact a case of your hermit crab molting(shedding/sloughing) it exoskeleton, and not being dead!!!!!!!Keep looking for it and also dose iodine to help inverts to shed.

 

Sounds like molting to me also.. I have crab parts spread throughout my sand bed...

 

sounds like molting.....

 

You should not have a Mandarin in a tank that is only 2 months old. They need alot of Live Rock in a tank that has curred for about a year so that it has a large cope pod population. Thats what they eat. I don't know if anyone has let you know this so I am just letting you know. Mandarin fish are number 1 on the list of fish that die in saltwater aquariums. You can buy some Cope pods online and if you have a refugium you can add them to it with some macro algae and a light source and it will continue to feed the Mandarin. You can also get the large ones called Tiger Pods. They reproduce very fast. Thats what I add to my tank Just too keep the pods numbers up. Just thought I would let you know. You can get alot of info online about this. Also don't add any iodine to your tank unless you test your level first. Most salt mixes have enough Iodine in them and with proper water changes you should be fine. If you had a very large number of shrimp, crabs, etc then I would say that you may need to add some. But most likely your fine. But just test first before adding anything.

 

thanks 4 all the advice, was hoping 2 get manderine 2 start eating frozen brine shrimp, people hav told me that they eat that, true or false? thanks again 4 all advice, new 2 marines so very welcome.

 

It may be possible to geta mandarin to feed on other food stuff or even switch from live foods all together, but they are specialized feeders and your mandarin may not have an easy time justifying and making the switch.

 

Have just found website that sells live copepods, so i will buy some 2 put in tank 2 breed and feed corals and manderine fish, hope that will b ok. any feedback? thanks