crab and shrimp problem

[beanoil]

Hi,

Here's some quick background: I had a 30g FOWLR for 10 years, that I upgraded to a 58 about 6 months ago. I brought over 1 fish only, a damsel that I've had all ten years, figuring on making the 58 a mixed reef. I wanted to give the tank 6 months or so to restabilize before adding anything.

So here's the problem: Yesterday, I added the cleanup crew--a dozen scarlet hermits, a dozen nassarius snails, and a dozen cerith snails. The crabs are exactly where I put them on the sandbed 36 hours ago. They appear to be alive 'cause they retract into their shell occasionally, but they're not eating anything, they're not going anywhere, they just sit there in exactly the same position I put them in. The snails are nowhere to be found. Normally, I wouldn't worry about that, except with the crabs' behavior, I don't know what to think.

I don't think water quality's an issue, unless it's something I don't normally test for. Temp is 77-79, according to two crappy floating thermometers (I figure one could be wrong, but if two are close together....). SG is 1.024, Ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate are all in line.

Also, I picked up a polyp rock at the same time (1st coral!). All polyps are open/extended etc, so that would indicate water is ok. So, does anyone have a clue what might be going on here? Any help would be appreciated.

Grant

[beanoil]

Sorry, the subject line should've read "snail", not "shrimp"...

[HowardW]

Snails and many inverts are very sensitive and intolerant to changing water conditions and require a nice slow acclimation period of about 2 hrs.

[beanoil]

The lfs told me to "float the bag for 15 minutes and drop them right in". That seemed stupid, so I did 1/3 cup replacements every 10 minutes for 40 minutes. Maybe that wasn't enough?

So, if that's the problem and they're still alive after 36 hours, just not moving around or eating, will they come around or eventually die?

Grant

[kiknchikn]

Mine sat around doing nothing for the first day too. Scarlets are a little shy at first sometimes. They're usually the first to duck into their shells when something approaches as well.

They're probably fine... don't worry about it too much. They can go quite a while without eating much anyways.

[DrBegalke]

Any update? Both of those snails are burrowers, so they are probably in the sand somewhere.

Ya, the LFS didn't know what they were talking about. Inverts are more sensitive to salinity changes then fish...

[beanoil]

No update, it's 6 hours later and the crabs still haven't moved....

[beanoil]

Update: One of the crabs has died and the others still haven't moved. Still no sign of the snails and now the polyps aren't looking to great either. Must be a water quality problem. Any ideas?

Grant

[ambaratur]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8401895#post8401895 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by beanoil
Update: One of the crabs has died and the others still haven't moved. Still no sign of the snails and now the polyps aren't looking to great either. Must be a water quality problem. Any ideas?

Grant
Can you post your actual parameters?

[beanoil]

Temp: 79
SG: 1.024
Ph: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0

I don't test for calcium, alkalinity, magnesium etc yet. I know I should and will begin soon. I do run a skimmer (AquaC Urchin Pro), I don't run carbon (maybe I should). Water changes are not as often as I'd like, but the parameters are right and we are talking about crabs here. How screwed up does your water have to be to kill crabs?!

Finally, I'll admit to being too cheap to buy an RO/DI unit. Instead, I buy the water company RO for $.35/gallon. No problems with the same company for 10 years, but maybe it finally caught up with me. Unless you can think of anything else.....?

Thanks again,
Grant

[2fishy]

Did you buy your aquarium new or was it used. I think if it were used, I would buy a copper test kit to see if there is any copper readings in the aquarium. If not, and although your readings are normal, do you know if the live rock in your aquarium was fully cured and how long did you have it in the aquarium before adding the cleanup crew. It could be that there was a spike when you weren't aware of it. Then yeah I think I would try running some carbon in the aquarium. At least I don't think it would cause any harm.

[beanoil]

The aquarium was bought new. 20 lbs of the rock in the tank came over from my 30 gallon that I've had for years. The other 55 is dry base rock from Reeferrocks.com. Anyone had any problems with that stuff?

[HowardW]

The problem is either something with one or more of your water parameters or the acclimation was too fast for the inverts IMO.

[beanoil]

The problem is either something with one or more of your water parameters or the acclimation was too fast for the inverts IMO.

Ok, obviously if it's the water, my only hope is big water changes soon. Crab #2 has bitten the dust and is being eaten by a snail. I've seen 5 out of the two dozen snails, so I guess most of them are allright.

If the acclimation was too fast, there's not much I can do, right? They either make it or they don't?