i had two emerald crabs that never molted and eventually died... too old maybe?????

[agoutihead]

i purchased two emerald crabs about 6 months ago, the first one bit the dust about a month or two ago, and the other one just died last night.
they never molted and im sure of this.
is this the reason why they died maybe?
i have other inverts that molt on a regular basis in my tank.

 

[tuningvis]

:notsure: what are your tanks water specs?
how did you acclimate them
it's kinda weird that they would die 5 months after entering in the tank

 

[agoutihead]

everything is perfect
0 trites
0 trates
0 amonia
8.2 ph
salinty - 1.027
temp. 79*
i have a bunch of things still living great.
bunch of hermits, bunch of snails
lmb
scooter blenny
mandarine
firefish goby
flame angel
yellow tail damsel
two clowns
jawfish
snowflake eel
chocolate chip starfish
hammer coral
frogspawn..
all are doing great.
like i said the emerald crabs never molted once... either one of them. they were probably the size of a quarter... maybe they were just at their last stage of life? they were very active in the begingin, and then they started to move around less and less.

 

[yas2903]

:notsure: what do you guys mean buy molted realy would like to know.

 

[alextrif]

you may want to research Iodine. My understanding is that you need adequate iodine for a molt. I understand this to be true for all hard shell invertibrates.

 

[alextrif]

a molt is the shedding of the old shell. Kinda dangerous time for the crab as the shell underneath is not fully hardened.

 

[denny80688]

since crabs have an exoskeleton in order to grow they have to shed the outside shell and grow a new one which is larger. So when you get an invert like a crab or shrimp it will shed its outside shell every few weeks/months and then hide for a day or 2 while the new shell hardens. So if you have hermits or anyting and see what look slike a dead hermit with no shell outside its probably an empty molt.

 

[evilbob22]

Molting is when they shed their shells to grow a larger one. It's the same as snakes shedding their skin (which is also molting).
Yes, I've heard that iodine is important to molting too, maybe the hermits and other stuff that molted didn't need as much. :notsure:
I'm surprised to see that you have an eel with a bunch of docile fish, I would have been sure that he'd eat just about everything else you have... congrats!
Does your manderin eat? Your tank is really too small for it to survive on just 'pods. Unless you are feeding it, it will live for 6 or 8 months then die. (It starves after eating all the 'pods in your tank.)

 

[agoutihead]

the eel is experiemental right now. so far it hasnt been too bad, he crawls in the jawfishs hole every once in a while and spooks him, but other than that i keep him well feed to where he should have no reason to go after fish or shrimp. so well seee, its only been a couple weeks.

 

[yas2903]

Thanks denny