losing crabs + shrimp

[unsalted]

In the last two months, I have lost 3 cleaner shrimp, a coral banded shrimp, and 50-60 hermits, and a sally lightfoot.
The cleaners were 8 months old, the coral banded 9 mo, the sally light foot 3 weeks, and there was one batch of hermits that were gone after 6 months, and the a second set of 30 that disappeared after a month of so.
What should I look for? Water problems? Predator? Not enough food?
Fish: flame angel, blue hippo tang, two perc clowns, cleaner wrasse, green chromis, and mandarin goby.
:help: :notsure:

 

[j_g]

Loosing the hermits is normal...they usually thin out anyway. But the other crabs dieing could be a result of low iodine and possibly not enough food for them to eat. I lost 2 crabs myself and still have 3 left and my 2 shrimp are doing great. I feed them every day and they are starving even then.

 

[kreach]

Have you treated your tank with any kind of medications for ich or something like that? Some fish medications are copper based and copper is highly toxic to inverts.
As for iodine, be VERY careful in dosing that. Iodine can very quickly and very easily reach toxic levels for your inverts. They molt to rid their bodies of iodine... too much iodine could lead to excessive molting and eventually death.

 

[unsalted]

no ich treatments, but I do add add coral vite 1 cap 3xs a week.
I need to get an iodine test kit then!

 

[jawfishray]

You may have a small mantis shrimp. Sounds like their calling card.
Ray

 

[overanalyzer]

Originally posted by JawfishRay
You may have a small mantis shrimp. Sounds like their calling card.
Ray
If it is a predator then most likely the shells and remains are piling up in front of a certain area .... watch that area - especially @ night.
Have you had your water tested for copper and iodine?? Also - what is your current levels of:
Alk
PH
Nitrates
Nitrites
Ammonia
and
Calcium?
Had the same problem ....ended up that my alk was so far out of whack and I kept doing water changes to help the problem and buffering because my PH was bad - did not measure my Alk until near the end of the issue. Should've known better but I had nothing else in the tank at all ....

 

[unsalted]

temp 78
pH8.2
Ca off the charts!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
phosphates 0.0
nitrates 40
kh4.2
alk 1.49
NH3 0.0
nitrites 0.2
obviously I have some work to do! Water will be mixed tommorrow. I have added a teaspoon of ph/alkalinity increaser and will recheck tommorrow. Will do water change ASAP

 

[overanalyzer]

I would suggest getting your test kits verified by the LFS if at all possible. Also - check to see if some of your crabs are crawling out of their shells ....
ALSO - I'd get new salt .... especially if you are using Instant Ocean. Buy a new batch if at all possible ....

 

[unsalted]

Is there a problem with Instant Ocean, if it has been around for awhile (1 year) does it change?
Is there a better brand?

 

[overanalyzer]

Originally posted by unsalted
Is there a problem with Instant Ocean, if it has been around for awhile (1 year) does it change?
Is there a better brand?
Some people have had a problem with IO spiking Alk (me included). I would mix up a water change batch and test it. Or just buy a new batch of IO ....
Your second question if posted on its own sparks a HUGE debate. Personally I would not switch types of salt in your tank. I still use IO in my 20 but I started a new 29 gallon and used marinemix

 

[jrpage]

Originally posted by overanalyzer
Also - check to see if some of your crabs are crawling out of their shells ....
Why? What could that mean?

 

[bang guy]

IMO it sounds like an overdose of Iodine. Not sure how that could happen though unless you're feeding a LOT of Nori.

 

[overanalyzer]

Originally posted by jrpage
Why? What could that mean?
It happened to me when my Alk was spiking through the moon .... I got my PH balanced out and ammonia and trites and trates all @ 0 but I had some algea so I bought a clena up crew and the blue legs all died ...but not before 2 were attacked and eaten by a reef safe wrasse (reef safe my WRASSE) and 2 more crawled out of their shells ....
figured he had a spike of some sort - so if they were crawling out of their shells I woudl highly recommend checking his alk and PH out with an lfs or other reefer ... sounds like it is his calcium and mag. which are spiked ....
don't know much about iodine but I would listen to Bang and see if you could get your levels tested!