Invert problem

[marine fanatic]

Hello all,
I have been having problems with my inverts dying lately and I cannot find out why. I have lost 1 emerald crab, 3 scarlet hermits and 2 blue-leg hermits in the past 3 weeks. Water changes have been made every 2 weeks and below are the water specs....
SG: 1.025
Temp: 78.8
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 8-9
Mineral tests showed nothing by both my testing strips and the LFS tests
At first I thought it might be the snowflake eel even tho I feed him very well and he never went after any of them. I put him in a QT to see if that eliminated the problem but it did not. The next week I lost 3 more crabs. I have never added ANY copper-based treatments and so far I cannot find any toxins. I use my LFS water supplier with AmQuel additive and never had any problems with it til about 3 weeks ago. I could deal with the hermits maybe killing each other but I have empty shells in there and that would not explain the loss of my emerald (which was rather huge and would not succumb to a little hermit).
Sorry this is so long but I wanted to type out as much info as possible...any help would be appreciated.

 

[joe's reefer]

well you dont have the most peaceful fish in there as you could.the damsels are probably picking at them and the eel might have eaten the emerald.is there enoough algea nd detritus for them to eat?

 

[marine fanatic]

Yes, there is alot of algae and such for them to eat. They even get a little left-over flake and brine when I feed the fish. I watch the tank often and have never seen the damsels go after them at all. In fact, the emerald would raise his claws up whenever a damsel came close and it scared the damsel away in a flash. I lost the emerald after I put my snowflake in the QT tho. He would not move hardly at all for a few days and his eyes were both clouded over. At first I thought maybe he was molting but he died on the 4th day.

 

[marine fanatic]

Wow....all these people and only 1 response. Cannot say that surprises me tho, seems like too many people are consumed with other things rather than helping out here...oh well

 

[crystain]

Is this a new tank?
I have problems keeping snails. They tend not to make it more than a week despite all my parameters being at the recommended levels.
I can't figure it out.
Shrug.

 

[wrassecal]

How old is your tank? Do you have any snails? I'm guessing here but even though you think there is enough algae there might not be. I only keep 8 snails and 6 crabs in my 55. I started with a larger group but had deaths also. Now I'll only add to the crew if I see a need and only one at a time.

 

[kris]

First I'll say that I'm sorry you did not get as many replies as you may have liked. Sometimes people are just busy especially over the weekend. Somehow I feel like quite the geek if it's Friday or Sat. night and where am I?? sitting in front of the computer helping someone with dying crabs. Just paste the great big capital L on my forehead. <img src="graemlins//yeahright.gif" border="0" alt="[yeahright]" /> Or sometimes you may not receive as much input because people simply don't know the answer. What's the point in replying ..."sorry, can't help you".
This is a difficult question too. You have ruled out all the immediate culprits--water quality, predation, starvation, and copper. Those are all the things I can think of. One question though would be how is your lr doing??? If the lr look great with no signs of deterioration then you can rule out invert "poisoning", that is by copper or any other compound that kills inverts and not fish.
Also bear in mind that I've learned that there are toxins/chemicals or whatever that we can not test for. Anyway, I am sorry I can't be of more help but well.....I don't know what's killing them.

 

[@]

this probably isnt the case, but i lost 2 cleaner shrimp a few weeks ago and after that i payed very close attention to all my inverts. about 2 days later i noticed a blue leg dead then another day later a scarlet. it ended up they were just molting and i thought the remains were dead crabs when in reality it was their exo skeleton(or however you spell it)hope this helps

 

[justinl]

This isn't a customer service board where people get paid to answer questions for others. It's done out of love for the hobby and out of the enjoyment one gets by helping other people. If you don't like the fact that you don't get an immediate response or only one response for your question, that's just tough. I never expect an answer to my questions I post here and am thankful when people respond- even once. Yes, people are consumed with other things- their lives, not yours- so don't get snotty when you only get one reponse on a FREE bulletin board poplulated by HOBBIESTS who try to HELP the best they can and WHEN THEY CAN.
I've just seen too many posts here lately about people complaining when someone doesn't answer a post right away or if no one has an answer for them. <img src="graemlins//yell.gif" border="0" alt="[yell]" />

 

[marine fanatic]

Justin, your comments were a complete waste of my time to read them.

 

[teog]

Marine Fanatic,
Many times blue legs hermits are aggressive to each other and other inverts...I had a large blue leg that killed other turbos and crabs. After I removed him from the tank I stopped losing inverts. Others have mentioned ideas that would come to mind as well.
There has been times I too had post questions without reply, I figured no one knew so I went to my next step...the LFS. But when you post comments like you shouldnt expect others to help. Belive me I am no expert but I have two larger tanks with increaing success through trial and error just like everyone else.....just my 2 cents

 

[diatom]

Marine~
Number one your attitude sucks. If someone out there knows the answer to your problem they'll answer. This is a very active board and people do what they can to help you.
Number Two Your hermits will kill regardless of whether there are empty shell in your tank or not, they are preditors.
Number Three, take your water over to Tony at K-9 counrty club, and have him test it...talk to him, he is very helpful.
Don't put it past that eel for a second to be killing your hermits, and those damsels too if he can get ahold of them.

 

[marine fanatic]

nah, K-9 sucks and Tony has given very BAD advice countless times to me and others that I know. Hell, I trust the local Pet-Co more than K-9

 

[diatom]

I've got excellant advice him, sorry you haven't had better luck. ***** will check your water too.

 

[justinl]

Diatom-
Thanks for reiterating my observation of MF's immaturity. The post he made regarding my comment about his impatience only supports my point. Guess you're one person I won't help even if I do know the answer.
So sad that people never learn respect.

 

[jakob4001]

here, I can help...sometimes you can do EVERYTHING "RIGHT" , but have EVERYTHING go wrong...what works for one does not always work for another even if done EXACTLY the same way...try try again or simply just move on...