emerald crab question

[suicideissleep]

i just found one of my 4 dead and my leather coral is sucked all the way in anyone have a clue why all my water tests check good so im not sure whats going on everything else in opened all the way and looks good even my polyps are getting color what should i do?

[spieszak]

possible molt on the emerald, and the leather could just be waxing. They do that. If your tests look good, wait it out for a day... when following up, post actual parameters, since "all look good" doesn't really give much to go on.

[muppet]

May be that the crab got a bite of that leather..? What size is your tank? In a tank as young as yours, there might not be enough in there to keep your crabs happy. If they're hungry, they may attempt to nip at corals.

I'm not entirely certain, but I THINK leathers are poisonous. It might be that they had an ill-fated meeting.

[muppet]

Definitely listen to Spieszak before you listen to me. I'm brand new to leathers.

Spieszak, when leathers "wax" how long do they generally do that for? I've got one that's been shrunken a week and a half.

[spieszak]

Longest I've seen was in my pico (5 gal) and it was three or four days... I'm sure they could go longer... Others might have some more experience... I generally don't "worry" about them when i see it unless I see other things in the tank that cause me to suspect problems. Never hurts to check params (which should almost always be step 1), but I don't let leathers make decisions for me. Zoa's closing for extended periods (more than an hour or two), kenya's drooping, xenia shrivleing... they are all much more telling IME/IMO

[suicideissleep]

the leather still is letting its fingures out but not expanding the color is changing a little to but the crab def is dead lost couple legs and i picked it up and the rest fell off have come hair algea and i feed them so they shouldnt be hungery i see them all day picking at stuff and today there all not really moving but everything is ok but the weird thing is theres star polyps on the same rock as the leather and there all open fully but the leather isnt just did water ch ange hope that does somthing ph and everything is good no nitrates or nitrites no amonia phoso is like .03ppm or somthing like that very very small even all the clams inmy tank are open so i dunno its weird

[spieszak]

Have you ever seen a emerald crab molt? They look exactly like an emerald crab.. and would react in the same manner as you describe. The actual crab is likely to hide for a while after also, which throws you off the track. Not saying its definitely that, but nothing you've said makes me think it isn't either.
Color change on the leather.. does it look waxy? Think of a colored candle. slightly less color than normal, (more pastel) and no polyp extension? If that is what it looks like, that is what I'm saying when I refer to waxing, and I'd give it some time before doing much of anything.
Water changes rarely hurt... be careful doing them in haste though.. when you rush you can cause yourself problems. (i did this once and was looking for 35ppt on my refractomer, and damn near poured SG 1.035 into my tank)
Bunch of basic stuff in that post. Low post count points to new tank. No offense intended if your an old pro...

[suicideissleep]

none taken and the crab is def dead i took it and opened it and it had its insides but smelled nastey as hell he def wasnt moving or had eyes anymore so im sure he was dead and the leather isnt waxing it looks the same just pulled all the way in and the bright green is getting lime green and still have small polyp extention so i dunno just was little worried because the leather is my fav thing besides the zoas

[suicideissleep]

nitrate-0
nitrite-0
ph-8.3
amonia-o
phos-.025
cal-480
sal- 1.024
like i said everything is where it should be cant figure it out

[suicideissleep]

those are the tests i have and that i did any othere test i should go get and check? my shrimp are molting like crazy i had them for month or so now and they each molted like 4 times so everything is healthy just random deaths

[Pallobi]

Shrimp molting once a week is crazy... Doesnt sound possible imo... Ive seen once a couple months myself... Interesting...

[suicideissleep]

i have about six molts i have found i dunno why but there going crazy in my tank and thats whats prolly doing everything else in

[spieszak]

Don't know if I'm allowed to post this link, so if I'm not, mods please remove with my apologies.
some info on molting.
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/shrimpbehfaqs.htm

[muppet]

I've got one big emerald with his arms all out of whack recently. They're positioned all wrong and he's having a lot of trouble moving (but not so much that I can catch him). He seems to have some sort of parasite.. or maybe a white SPONGE growing on/in him? Anybody ever see a sponge grow invasively in a crustacean?