horrible day

[flamingkingofhe]

Well today has not been a great day to start i had several problems with other stuff and then i come home to find my buddy Mr. arrowhead crab dead there have been no salinity fluctuations and no water problems i tested and the water chemistry couldn’t be any better nothing was picking on him and he was fat and happy he ate plenty of fish food and bristle worms
yes i know they kill bristle worms so lets please not turn this into a bristle worm debate!
Any ideas what caused this I have had him for over a year?

 

[krux]

are you sure it wasn't a molt? on the larger crabs it looks a heck of a lot like a dead crab. give it a day or two, it might just be hiding in the rock work waiting for its new shell to harden (they do that).

 

[flamingkingofhe]

ok i will check the molt i can tell the difference between a molt and the real thing pretty well though
jw i agree that is one of the things that fascinates me about this hobby the way thigs can just happen for unexplained reasons

 

[bdhough]

The molt of crabs can really fool you. Shrimp is alot easier to tell. I do concur tho probably hiding or he just died....

 

[the claw]

Any body have a clue what the lifespan of the average crab is. Mithrax, Arrow, Etc.?????????????

 

[bdhough]

i've heard several years 1-3
Don't really have any way of telling how old a specimen is unless you've raised one from birth to death

 

[the claw]

Yeah, I got several in a shipment a couple of days ago, and one of them must have turned three on the way here, and croaked.
bad joke I know, but what do you expect at this time of day

 

[rickster]

The longest survival of any kind of crab is believed to be around 30 years...in the wild! There are some reports that some have kept a single hermit for that length of time. I don't believe it. Even if you folks get a favorite "hermit" the likely lifespan is likely to be about 1-4 years in an aquarium. I personally replace hermits and count the extra shells as beneficial.
The people who claim to keep such long-lived crabs attribute it to a single factor. House only similar sized crabs. Most of us do not bother.
It is important to remember that all crustaceans molt, and most molt more frequently when younger and growing. If you wish to grow a crab beyond its younger years, then you must account for its relatively large size compared to its younger tank-mates.

 

[lesa]

My arrowhead has never molted but everthing else has. I wonder why??