I think I killed my sally lightfoot and I need CUC advice.

[johnvic]

Last Sunday night I noticed that my sally lightfoot was hiding in a cave and not moving. About and hour or 2 later I checked again and he moved about an inch. So I thought I would wait and see. In the morning I saw him outside the cave, on his side and not moving. Also 3 of his legs were off and on the sand bed. He did not look attacked. My only other creatures are a royal gramma, a mushroom coral and 3 nassarius snails. So I thought that he must be molting and I removed what I saw in the assumption that it was the empty shell and that he was hiding until he grows a new shell. I've read that people have mistaked the molted shell as the actual creature. Well it has been a week and no sight of sally. I think sally was not done molting and I'm assuming that is why she didn't move when I picked the shell up. Does that make sense? I feel like an idiot if I killed him!
Meanwhile my algae is growing, at first he took care of the algae quickly but now it is free to grow.
My tank is a 34 gal. Solana. I keep my lights on for 8 hours a day. I think I have been over feeding because the royal gramma cannot get to all the food before some of it gets picked up by the intake for the pump. I may try a super small feeding, let the fish eat it and do one more tiny feeding. I have been using activated carbon and tonight I am doing a water change and also changing out the carbon. My water tests have been good and my nitrate levels have been less than 5 ppm.
So, any advice for a CUC? I could get another sally lightfoot and wait before I remove the shell! But I have read mixed things about them.
Thanks!

 

[hlcroghan]

One of the best things I have found to do is actually turn my pumps off for about an hour when I am feeding the tank. Then everything has a chance to eat before it gets sucked into the filter. I use about half the food I did before using this method and all the fish get more than enough to eat.
As for the sally lightfoot, I would definitely post parameters. If your nitrates get too high then he could have died or started to lose limbs. How are your other inverts? and yes it is possible that you threw him away instead. It can be very very hard to tell the molt from the actual animal. I usually wait until I see the animal again before I remove th molt. That way I know I didn't throw him away.....bummer if you did though. Just keep a look out for him.

 

[johnvic]

My parameters have been very good. My nitrates have been below 5 ppm. I'm pretty convinced I threw him away.
I have been turning the nano powerheads off but not the main pump when feeding. I'll try that too.

 

[westwind77]

I thought I lost mine the other day as well. I saw the molt, which was perfectly intact, and assumed that was the crab. I had just bought him less than a week before so I thought something in my tank got to him. Later that night I see him run across a top of rock, I was excited that it was just the molt! I thought I lost the coral bannded the 1st time he molted because it was such a perfect 'shell'. Hope yours was a molt!