Whats up with my Hermit crabs??

I posted a thread last week about adding 12 hermit crabs 12 small snails and 2 peppermint shrimp to my tank and returned a 2 inch yellow watchman goby to my LFS. I returned him b/c he ate everything you put in the tank and was tired of buying him a 30 dollar snack. But a week later I now see that a few of the crabs are out of there shells and dieing!!!! Whats up with that? I am really new to this sport / hobby and don't understand whats up, the tank is looking a lot better since I have added these guys and it saddens me to see this happen. I don't have the money to tame the aiptasia yet but really like an invert. tank love to see these guys running around. Any ideas and no I haven't really tested the water...probably need to do that huh? But it looks great!!

 

Yep test the water first. Also do you have a grounding probe? Inverts are very sensitive to stray voltage.
Also, are you sure they are dieing? They may just have molted. The hermit molts look exactly like a little hermit that came out of the shell. And, after they molt, they will hide out and be inactive for a few days, so it might just be that as well.

 

Could be molting. Definitely test the water. Also, you said you have an Aptasia problem. How bad is it, because there are cheap ways to deal with small infestations.

 

Molting YESSS!!! Lets hope its that b/c the day after I did a water change last week my peppermint shrimp did just that. Kinda crazy b/c now the skin is gone do they go back and eat the skin?? Any way you guys rock thanks for the quick response!!!!!!!!!!