Emeralds. Hermits and snails

[carribear]

These three things in my tank seem to be dying off in the past few weeks. All params are within normal limits, and I haven't lost any fish, soft corals or anenomes. In fact all others seem to be thriving. Any ideas???? Am I missing something?

 

[DoctaQ]

my snails used to randomly die off all the time when my tank first started, a few days in the tank usually weeds out the weak ones.
hermits constantly fight so that could be it
ivenever kept emerald crabs so cant help you there

 

[Amphiprion]

There are several potential reasons, ranging from acclimation damage (not necessarily on the side of the aquarist) to starvation. This leaves me with several questions:

--how long has the tank been set up?
--how long have you had the animals in question?
--how much algae is there and is it the right kind? It is common to get the wrong animals for a particular alga, resulting in them starving.
--what kind of snails were they?
--are you providing any of them with supplementary food?
--how did you acclimate them (and do you know how your LFS/online store acclimated them?
--what are your water parameters exactly? "Fine" isn't really descriptive enough to help out.

 

[mcsassy]

You said your soft corals are fine...but are you keeping up with calcium levels? Snails and crabs need it too...at least I think...for building their exoskeletons and shells.

 

[Amphiprion]

Snails need it for their shells, whereas crabs don't need anywhere near the same amount (their shells are mostly made out of chitin and a tiny, tiny bit of calcium carbonate and protein). The comparatively small amount they need is mostly obtained through their diet.

 

[peasofme]

crabs kill snails. crabs kill crabs. they all need to be fed. there could be something wrong with your tank. ph, po4, nitrate, copper, stray voltage, lack of oxygen, etc. inverts are very sensetive to changes in your tank. they must be drip acclimated also.