Upside down hermit crabs, but still alive

[cuse]

I am new to the hobby, so please forgive my ignorance here...Do maxi mini's kill or stun hermit crabs or emeral crabs?? I also just added a torch coral also. Could either of these be making my hermit crabs turn upside down??

 

[bang guy]

I don't think I understand what you mean by an upside down Hermit Crab.

 

[cuse]

I mean that my crabs are just sitting on the bottom of my tank upside down. They are still alive, but not really moving around at all. They look stunned, and I'm afraid they are going to die.

 

[bang guy]

Are they new to the tank? It sounds more like osmotic shock (sudden change in salinity) that getting stung by a coral.
I still don't understand what you mean by upside down.

 

[cuse]

osmotic shock?? I did try to increase my salinity in my tank. It was at 1.023 and I was told to get it closer to 1.025 for my new corals. The corals are all new to my tank, but my hermit crabs have been in there for several months. Also, I had an emeral crab for over a month, and I found him dead just after adding these corals. Could that little jump in salinity kill him too?

 

[bang guy]

Yes, depending on how rapidly you increased the salinity.
The normal process for increasing salinity is to use saltwater for topoff instead of freshwater for a week or so until the salinity is where you want it.

 

[stotty]

Will the crab get over osmotic shock ?

 

[bang guy]

it's possible they can recover depending on how big a change in salinity it was.