No Feeding Instuction!

[gary henderson]

Purchased Live Rock, Live Sand and Cleaner Crew from Saltwater.com. All were doing great and tank has cycled. Now I'm loosing scarlet hermit crabs and the blue legged crabs. Have re-read all instruction and can find nothing about feeding. Fish flakes don't seem to be their thing. Ordered fish today, can't wait for delivery, this is a great hobby!

 

[finland]

Hermit crabs are scavengers that eat left over food, algae, detritus. It is possible, that there isn't anything for them to eat. Also, do you have some empty shells for them. They out grow shells and need replacements. What are your water parameter. Amm, trites, trates, ph, alk, etc. Poor water conditions may be causing them to die off also.

 

[sistrmary]

It's also possible that they just molted. Are you seeing little hermit crab ghost-looking things floating about the tank? A lot of crabs and shrimp will molt within a week of being transferred into a new system. Or are you seeing a bunch of empty shells?
If there isn't an excessive amount of food (meaning enough that they don't have to really work at finding it) they could be killing each other. A friend of mine has a crab that lives alone because it's a lot easier to yank some other poor hermit out of his shell and eat him than it is to actually forage for food.

 

[gary henderson]

Some of all may be corrcet. I see snails and other crabs eating their brothers. I think they cleaned up the tank and are running out of food. With no fish in the tank may be I'm not feeding enough flakes. All the warning, " Don't overfeed". What kind and how much food guidlines please. Oh, water tests perfect (of those test I know about)

 

[sistrmary]

when you feed your fish, there is always a bit that gets to the bottom, it just depends on how many crabs, shrimp, etc you have in the tank. Get some frozen krill shrimp or some large pieces of clam or squid. Something that you can put in the bottom of the tank and scoop out the next day if they don't eat it. Or if you have good filtration, just drop a cube of brine shrimp...they'll find it. I can't remember the name of it, but there's an orange frozen algae mix that has some form of gel binder in it. If you drop that in, they'll be able to pick it apart and you won't have to worry about it breaking down into bad things.
The problem is that you bought a clean up crew when there was really nothing to clean up Unless you hadn't scrubbed the rock, but even then a decent clean up crew would take care of all that pretty quick. When you get some fish in that you're regularly feeding, it will be easier on the cleaners.
As for how much, all hermits do all day is eat. Eat and fight over who gets to eat where. Eventually, they'll find it and eat it.