View Full Version : me crabs be dyin.
liquafaction
10-14-2003, 8:45 PM
I got some hermits (blues, and reds) in a week ago today. I have lost 3 out of 80. I have algae in my tank, that is slowley disapearing, so I would say they are eating it. I am questioning starvation, but really do not know for sure. The ones that have died have been out of their shells. I have a handfull of shells in the tank that they can move into if need be (maybe 15 - 20). Do they grow so fast that they would move house this fast? Water paramaters are o.k.
amonia 0
nitrates 0
nitrites 20
ph 8.2
My temp is higher than I like it, 80.5, but it pretty much stays there. Every thing in my tank seems to be great. I even have corals starting to show up from nowhere. The algae in my tank is like a green carpet in spots. It looks like real dark green/gray short grass. I also have a deep red burgandy (slime algae) growing. Crabs do eat this right? Sometimes these crabs sit on a rock (with what looks like nothing on it but coraline algae) and pick and eat. It looks like they are eating nothing, but I guess they would not sit around at look like they are eating. These crabs did come from southern florida reefs if that makes a difference.
if you've only lost 3 out of 80 i'd say your doing pretty good. if you lose say 20 or 40 then you have to look into some causes. I wouldn't worry about it unless some more start dropping off over the course of the next week.
inverts don't like temp. fluxuation though. which is why we acclimate them for so much longer than fish. off the top of my head i'd consider watching that.
Gu
BrianH
10-15-2003, 7:33 AM
Are you sure you lost them? Remember that hermit crabs molt and these will look exactly like the crab.
Brian
mogurnda
10-15-2003, 7:56 AM
Yeah, with that many crabs, you might expect quite a few molts.
kreblak
10-15-2003, 9:13 AM
I was going to say they are probably molts, but that has been covered. I'll add that even if you did lose 3 hermits, 3 out of 80 isn't anything to worry about. Look at the "bodies." Do the eye stalks appear hollow? If so, it's a molt. That is the best way to tell if it is a molt or a dead hermit. My hermits molt every three weeks to a month, and I have around 20. I find their shells all over, though I have yet to find a blue legged molt.
One last thing, Ron Shimek says that crustaceans stand a 1/10 shot of not surviving any given molt, due to the stress placed on the gills during ecdysis, so some losses are inevitable.
liquafaction
10-15-2003, 9:55 AM
Will the molts still be bright red,or blue just like the color of the crab? I know when I got my pepermints, the next day I had 2 molts, and thought they were dead. That night, I seen them scampering for a hiding place when I turned my dining room light on. Anyway, there molts were quite a bit dull in color compared to them.
liquafaction
10-15-2003, 9:58 AM
oh, on the temp change. last night we had a cool front blow through. I did not turn my "house" heater on, and did not plug in my tank heater. My tank temp dropted 2 degrees over a 6-8 hour period. I labout crapped my pants when I saw this. Everything seems to still be ok though.
kreblak
10-15-2003, 10:02 AM
When my scarlett hermits molt, the leave an EXACT copy of themselves behind. It is really freaky the first time you see it. It is bright red, and the eye stalks are even yellow. If you see the molt begin to break apart, you'll see that it is hollow. I picked up the first molt I saw, and it came apart in my hand. I just leave the molts alone now, as they return elemental calcuim to the water column.
liquafaction
10-15-2003, 12:33 PM
its funny because there is never a shell around where you see the carcus. I found another one this morning, and pulled it out. Are the claws and legs still hard when they molt? Are the joints still flexable? I pulled the dead crabs or molts out because I did not want the rotting bodies to build up amonia. When you get them out with a net, they do fall apart real easy. Next time I find one, I will break apart the claws to see if they are hallow.
Should I get more shells to add for new "homes" ? how often do they change shells.
kreblak
10-15-2003, 2:32 PM
Hermits will change shells as often as they need to while they grow. My scarlett hermits have kept their shells for close to 8 months now. However, their shells were oversized 8 moths ago.
My blues, on the other hand, change often. When I first added them, they all tried on new shells. One tiny blue got himself a shell that was gigantic compared to his body! He has since grown into his new shell, but there are other blues that try on new shells all the time.
Supposedly hermits are always seeking snail shells for new homes, but I have yet to see any hermit wearing a snail shell. I just kept some of my crushed coral substrate mixed into the sand when I switched over to a DSB. That way, there are a lot of shells and such around for the hermits to pick from.