Unexplained crab deaths?

Q

QCppg

Carp for brains!
May 4, 2004
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In the last couple months I have had an emerald crab, an arrow crab and a red crab all die with no apparent cause. The arrow crab had one leg detatched upon inspection, but other than that none of them showed any damage, which makes me doubt I'm dealing with a predator. I can't check my water parameters (other than salinity) because my test kit was missing several pieces and I am currently unemployed and can't get new kits at the moment. Thanks.

The tank is currently stocked with the following:
Coral banded shrimp
Peppermint shrimp x 2
Sally Lightfoot crab
Red leg hermit crab x2
Blue leg hermit crab x5-15 (were purchased at 1/2 price on a "per shell" basis with no guarintee if I was getting an animal or not)
Bumblebee snail x6
Trubo snail x2
Horseshoe crab
 
What size tank are they in? If the tank is too small, then it could be fighting, or maybe just poor water conditions. Also, a lot of pet stores will test your water conditions for free, or for really cheep, so it may be wise to do that. Also, is the tank setup so the crabs can get to the surface. Some crabs can live underwater all the time, but a lot can not.
 
I might be way off the mark here but lots of times increased phosphate ,"maybe nitrate but, less likely", will cause a lot of stress on snails and crustaceans. I would take a sample of h20 to my lfs for a test to check out the params. It shouldn't cost more than few $ and would save you a bunch in the long term. These problems would probably be the easies to address.
hth and keep us posted
chris
 
Also, I would have them check for trace amounts of copper. I understand that inverts do not tolerate copper at all and if copper meds were ever used in that tanks it's almost impossible to get it all out. Do you have other inverts in your tank?
Nevermind... I see you have shrimp and a horseshoe.
 
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