hermit crabs

[mpal]

My tank has been going for a month and half now.
I have had five green chromis,fire shrimp and two emerald crabs in the for a month all are well. the shrimp has molted twice. A week and a half ago I added 30 snails, ten scarlet reef hermits and a maroon clown. Over the last two days four of the hermits died. I can't figure out why. my levels are amm 0, trites 0 and trates 5. The tank seems to be maturing nicely. Over the last couple of days I have noticed feather duster popping out of the rock and copepods all over. Anyone have ideas as to why they might be dieing?

 

[broomer5]

Are you finding hermit remains on the substrate or dead crabs still in their shells ?
Could be just the molted carcass, or indeed dead ones.
What size tank ?
Any other details would be helpful.

 

[mpal]

I am finding the whole crab laying on the sand,out of the shell, untouched by anything. I have taken them out of the tank it is the actual crab. I have a 180gallon tank with a 4" DSB and 90 pounds of live rock(still adding rock as I find peices I like).
Any ideas??
Thanks,
Mark

 

[broomer5]

So you should have 4 empty shells on the sand or in the rockwork. Have you been able to locate the empties ? Or did you add additional shells for the crabs to use ???
Not sure about this - I've lost a crab or two before, but not 4 at one time.
Forgive for asking - but did you acclimate them according to some instructions ? I know inverts, crabs and snails are really at risk when introduced to a different set of water parameters - especially the salinity.
Sorry - can't be of much more assistance - maybe someone has gone through this and will reply.

 

[sinner's girl]

This might be a stupid question but did you have emtpy shells for them to move into? it's possible they needed bigger shells and killed each other or died from not having a bigger shell. I know ours love to play musical shells.
~My two cents.

 

[mpal]

I did add a bunch of empty shells so I am not sure which are which.
I did acclimate them by instructions I found online. I don't think it was that since all the snails are doing well.
Thanks for trying. I hope they stop dropping.

 

[shel]

Not to sound like a broken record, but are you sure they were dead? Like stated above you should a lot of emepty shells. When they molt it does look like a dead crab. Mine also seem to molt along with the hermits.
The first time mine molted, I just knew it was dead. I went as far as called my LFS and asked what could have happened? I then picked up his shell, and sure enough their was my hermit crab alive and good.
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