recieved my clean up crew today questions

[cindyski]

40 scarlet hermits
10 cerith snails
3 peppermint shrimp
acclimated fine, but when i put them in the tank some are upside down, do these guys find there own way rightside up or do they need help? the crabs are doing pretty good stuffing their faces the snails, i dont know, they are pretty much in a pile and not moving. when i put the shrimp in 2 of them found a hole in a rock and went right to it, i wish i could have got a pic in time, both their heads were sticking out together. the other has dissappeared, he was moving about nice and maybe he found a hole too?
there were some claws in the bag that must have broke off of the hermits, are they dead now? not all of them are moving around so i am not sure. should i contact SWF about any of this? or is it just normal.
thanks

 

[karajay]

My cerith snails seem to be able to right themselves, but I give them a boost if I notice them upside down.
My peppermints are pretty reclusive, they ususally only appear at dinner time.
I'm not sure, but i think hermits can regrow their claws.

 

[cindyski]

thanks, i will keep my eye on the snails,they have not budged at all, also their bag was kinda deflated when i got it, but what i read on this site when i ordered said that is normal i'll give it a day or so before i contact SWF

 

[iluvfish]

When I got my turbo snails from SWF - I acclimated them as told - then put them in the tank. They all stayed attached in a little ball for 8-12 hours before they moved apart by themselves. Just give them time.
My peppermints never come out in the open. Sometimes I can see them behind the rocks. They're still pretty cool!
Good luck Cindy!!

 

[cindyski]

iluvfish,
thanks for the info. we just looked again and they are very slowly breaking apart.
the hermits are going nuts! (until they got full ) most of them were just grabbing and eating.
my daughter spotted the peppermints, they are under a piece of rock.
very cool stuff to see!!!
what is the "blue" grass that grows? good/bad?
alot of stuff has popped out of the rock the last day or so!!

 

[cindyski]

over night it seems that more hermits lost claws. and now nobody is moving. they couldnt have all died? yesterday the hermits were pretty active.

 

[1journeyman]

Crabs regenerate their claws when they molt. Their *might* be exceptions to this, but I don't think so. Any missing claws should be fine.
Good luck with them!

 

[cindyski]

ok, this is bugging me, how can you tell for sure if a hermit crab is alive or dead? some of these have not moved all day.

 

[cnlight]

you might want to check your nitrate levals. Inverts are sensitive to levals higher than 40. Or they might just be full and are sleeping, but...... you should check your water parameters to make sure everything is still ok.

 

[bheron]

cindy - test for copper! i only say this out of 100% experience. my tank was keeping fish just fine. all levels fine. then i tried to put in a turbo snail. one after the other they kept doing the same thnig your'e talking about. eventually i found this site and learned that ANY levels of copper whatsoever literally "liquifies" snails!!!
just a thought

 

[elfdoctors]

I agree - check for copper.
I had a batch of snails that died simply from adding some new fish and allowing the bagged water that the fish were in go into my tank at the same time (that's the way I always did it with freshwater).
After my snails died, I checked with that LFS and they admitted that they ran copper full time in their tanks to prevent their fish from dying from ich.
Did you use tap water? Bang Guy posted that tap water can be declared safe with copper levels that are extremely toxic for invertebrates.

 

[cindyski]

with all due respect, keep in mind this is a brand new setup and i have an acrylic tank and never added any meds at all. got the clean up crew from swf.com, i personally dont think it is copper. also my xenia is doing very well.
thanks for all your input

 

[bheron]

Cindi, i forgot to mention - and to echo elfdoctor - i got the copper in my tank from my tap water! i never used any copper meds. have you used ANY tap water in your tank at all since setup?

 

[fender]

Give them a few days. Sometimes hermits and snails hole up for awhile. Also check your salinity. I have found snails have "sweet spots" and when the salinity is where they want it they are very active. Mine was 1.024 (according to my chincy hydrometer).

 

[cindyski]

thanks
no tap water here
my hermits are leaving their shells and dieing
salinity is fine on my deep 6
i e-mailed swf.com but have not heard anything back, almost all my hemits are dead, i think there is maybe 4-5 left out of 40
snails hmm, i see maybe 5 out of 10 moving about, 2 are definatly gone.
peppermint shrimp - i see 1 active and the other 2 are either hiding or dead

my yellowtail damsels are doing fine and same with my xenia
what is up here?