How do i know if i need to add supplement food for hermit crabs?

-Nemo-

-Nemo-

Master Diver
Jul 31, 2007
274
0
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Great Barrier Reef
and how do i know my limit for my tank?

20G FOWLR, 1 common clown, i green chromis, 1 clnr shrimp, 2 hermits.

isince this was only set up 3 months ago, and all these have only been in there abot 3 weeks, i wonder if they have enough to eat. i can provide pics if needed. i lost one the other day and saw him run out of his shell and hide, stayed in the same spot and that was the end of him. so i wonder if they have enough to eat.
 
Hermits (and cleaner shrimp) will scavenge for any leftover food that might be in the tank from feeding your fish. With only 2 hermits and 1 cleaner shrimp in a 20g tank, it doesn't take much extra food to keep them fed. If you're really concerned, you could add a little bit more food, but it really should only be a LITTLE bit more food. If you increase the amount of food too much, you'll risk a nuissance algae outbreak.

With the hermit you lost recently, it kind of sounds like it exited its shell in order to molt, but had some kind of issue shedding its exoskeleton and ended up dieing from it. It's hard to say for sure, but that would be my guess.
 
fsn77 said:
Hermits (and cleaner shrimp) will scavenge for any leftover food that might be in the tank from feeding your fish. With only 2 hermits and 1 cleaner shrimp in a 20g tank, it doesn't take much extra food to keep them fed. If you're really concerned, you could add a little bit more food, but it really should only be a LITTLE bit more food. If you increase the amount of food too much, you'll risk a nuissance algae outbreak.

With the hermit you lost recently, it kind of sounds like it exited its shell in order to molt, but had some kind of issue shedding its exoskeleton and ended up dieing from it. It's hard to say for sure, but that would be my guess.
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ty. i hand feed my cleaner shrimp flakes, he doesn't seem to venture far away from the top of the rocks (at least when i'm around). so i'm not sure how much scavenging he does, planning on adding another one and 4 more hermits this week. so i was just wondering if there is something in the way of food i might pick up while i'm at the store. but if left over flakes is enough, then ok. i thought maybe i could buy another type of food (for the fish too) which i understand is supposed to be a good thing to vary the diet.

and yeah, about that one hermit. a day later i noticed he was still living, out of his shell. now he's hanging from a rock, sort of hidden, but i put his shell near, and there is a vacant trochus shell too. i'll see what happens.

:)
 
You're welcome. If you're looking for some ideas about other types of food, you may want to consider freeze-dried Cyclopeeze (a dry food that comes in a can like standard flakes or pellets) and frozen mysis shrimp. Either will help add some variety to the diet of your tank's inhabitants and are generally considered good food choices. With such a small fish population, a cube of frozen mysis shrimp would likely be too much food for your tank to get all at once, but you could split the cube in half before thawing it if it's worth the effort (not sure exactly how difficult this is, but have considered trying it myself) or buy frozen mysis in a "flat pack" -- essentially a large, thin, flat sheet of frozen mysis that you can break off whatever amount you need.
 
fsn77 said:
You're welcome. If you're looking for some ideas about other types of food, you may want to consider freeze-dried Cyclopeeze (a dry food that comes in a can like standard flakes or pellets) and frozen mysis shrimp. Either will help add some variety to the diet of your tank's inhabitants and are generally considered good food choices. With such a small fish population, a cube of frozen mysis shrimp would likely be too much food for your tank to get all at once, but you could split the cube in half before thawing it if it's worth the effort (not sure exactly how difficult this is, but have considered trying it myself) or buy frozen mysis in a "flat pack" -- essentially a large, thin, flat sheet of frozen mysis that you can break off whatever amount you need.
Click to expand...
:thm:
excellent. exactly the info i was looking for. i'll get some of those foods when i get the hermits this week. i'll be adding one or two more fish in a couple weeks with my common clown and green chromis. i like those royal grammas. do you see any problems with me adding one of those?
 
I've never had a royal gramma myself, but the people that I've known to have one typically complain that they didn't see it very often. I guess they tend to be a little reclusive, so that might be worth knowing before spending the money. Otherwise, a 20g is a little on the small side for housing one, but you might get away with it (the minimum tank size recommended varies online between 20 and 30g, depending on where you look). If it's a 20g long, you're probably on the safer side of being ok.
 
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