Hello from London.
First my thanks to all of you that have recorded and posted your RCC information as it has been of great benefit to me.
To give something back I wanted to record my thoughts and findings surrounding the death after 3 weeks of my RCC's and assumptions etc. that I make.
I look forward to replies and hope that we can enhance what is already an excellent forum topic!
In short, I was made aware of 10 RCC's that were going to be "dumped" and so I thought I was being clever by rescuing them. Got them home and into an 18" tank and all seemed fine and they settled in and set about eating as much bloodworm as I cared to give them.
Four molts were found in the tank in the first week, and the internal Fluval filter sponges were satisfactory.
3 weeks later, and within 6 hours, all of the crabs had rolled-over and died, some of the carapaces were beginning to "unpeel" from the underneath. 24 hours later no change so death was certain.
The filter sponges were brown that week and very, very sludge-like and the water a little brown and the gravel tainted with light brown.
I have settled on the opinion that although cleaned weekly the quantity of crabs must have made sooooo much waste and mess that the filters could not cope on a weekly basis after 3 weeks and that they were poisoned? 2 small lamp-head that shared this tank also died with no sign on attack and the other fish and the crabs got on really, really well.
I did not have the money to get more tanks to reduce the number nor could I put them elsewhere - I am very sad that I feel I have killed them and let them down and although I do not wish to be flamed I did want to share this story as a warning to others and also to prompt discussion on what could have happened and what did go wrong.
Looking forward to being a part of this fine forum and hope to hear from you soon.
First my thanks to all of you that have recorded and posted your RCC information as it has been of great benefit to me.
To give something back I wanted to record my thoughts and findings surrounding the death after 3 weeks of my RCC's and assumptions etc. that I make.
I look forward to replies and hope that we can enhance what is already an excellent forum topic!
In short, I was made aware of 10 RCC's that were going to be "dumped" and so I thought I was being clever by rescuing them. Got them home and into an 18" tank and all seemed fine and they settled in and set about eating as much bloodworm as I cared to give them.
Four molts were found in the tank in the first week, and the internal Fluval filter sponges were satisfactory.
3 weeks later, and within 6 hours, all of the crabs had rolled-over and died, some of the carapaces were beginning to "unpeel" from the underneath. 24 hours later no change so death was certain.
The filter sponges were brown that week and very, very sludge-like and the water a little brown and the gravel tainted with light brown.
I have settled on the opinion that although cleaned weekly the quantity of crabs must have made sooooo much waste and mess that the filters could not cope on a weekly basis after 3 weeks and that they were poisoned? 2 small lamp-head that shared this tank also died with no sign on attack and the other fish and the crabs got on really, really well.
I did not have the money to get more tanks to reduce the number nor could I put them elsewhere - I am very sad that I feel I have killed them and let them down and although I do not wish to be flamed I did want to share this story as a warning to others and also to prompt discussion on what could have happened and what did go wrong.
Looking forward to being a part of this fine forum and hope to hear from you soon.
