Something's up..

[LittleBee]

So I put a Halloween crab in my 10g to help with the algae on the sand bc the snails pretty much don't do much and not even 24 hours later he is dead. Not molted but dead. Something has to be wrong. My snails are hardly active at all. But the fish and corals are fine. I'm gonna go test everything now and post the results but is there anything in peticular that I should be testing for other than ammonia, nitrate, nitrite. Alk mag and cal. I'll also test the Sg but other than that what else should I test for? For phosphates ill have to go to my lfs.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Well.. PO4 isn't suspect in crab death or snail lethargy.
How do you measure SG?

 

[LittleBee]

I use a hydrometer but my lfs uses a refractometer and it measured at 1.027 last time I checked which was about a week ago.

 

[Capt_Cully]

That's a touch high? With it being a 10 gallon, are big fluctuations a possibility?

 

[LittleBee]

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate less than 5

Calcium 320
Alk 8.1 dkh
Mag 1240 ppm
Temp 78
Sg 1.025 from hydrometer

Weekly water changes of 2 gallons but I did a 50% last week for deep cleaning. Top off every other day.

I don't think there is too much fluctuation, it doesn't evaporate very fast surprisingly. I'm stumped.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

is there water motion in this small aquarium?

 

[LittleBee]

Oh yea I forgot that lol. Two koralia nanos. One 240 and one 425. The 425 is agitating the surface. And I forgot to mention I have two feather dusters doing fine also.

 

[Foody]

Weekly water changes of 2 gallons but I did a 50% last week for deep cleaning. Top off every other day. .

I have a 55 and top off twice a day. If not my sg will fluctuate a full point, and I have about 95% coverage on the top of my tank. I would imagine a 10 would flux quite a bit more. Additionally, my hydrometer was incredibly unreliable. I can't believe I didn't kill everything before I got my refractometer.

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

Where do you get your water change water from? Are you sure the crab is dead and didn't molt?

 

[LittleBee]

Idk what to say about topping off. I judge it by the top rim of the tank. When it gets just below that I top off. It just doesn't evap very fast for me. I could bring my water to the lfs to be tested for Sg, I did last week and it was 1.027 and my hydrometer reads 1.025 that's not too far off.

I use tap water. I know 90% of you guys use rodi water but I get an annual water report and it shows exactally what's in the water and how much so I know it is safe. And I'm sure it's not a molt. Usually you can see where the body splits for the molt and that wasn't there. It was a full body.

 

[tmz]

Other than a toxic metal like copper( parts per billion can be fatal to some marine inverts) leaching from pipes or fittings or otherwise present ; the only parameter I know that would affect the crab would be sg changes and even then it would have to be off quite a bit ,say less than 1.023 or more than 1.029, to kill it. Don't know how the lfs or others in the chain of custody acclimated it or whether the move to your tank involved a big shift in sg(ie, if the lfs kept it in low sg ) or the crab was just sick when you got it. Inverts are more sensitive to sg shifts than fish since they can't osmoregulate but do have a limited range of tolerance.
The cliopagurus stingatus ( haloween hermit crab)originates in Haiwian waters where inshore temperatures average 74 degrees farenheit with summer highs of 80 degrees ;so ,temperature is not likely an issue at 78 degrees , at least not short term. Sometimes crabsand shrimp have a bad molt and die or are attacked when vulnerable .

 

[LittleBee]

But the weird part is is I didn't just purchase it. It's been in my 93g for months with the other halloweens and I needed a little boost in the ten gallon so I moved him over. I didn't just put him in though, I drip acclimated him for about 20 Mins even though the tanks should have the same parameters.

 

[LittleBee]

It's just a plain 10g tank. No sump or any type of additional plumbing to it.

 

[mr.maroonsalty]

That you are using straight tap water I'm doubling up on Cu.

 

[Capt_Cully]

That may not long enough to acclimate to a large swing in specific gravity for invertebrates. Having them move to a hypertonic solution would cause them to lose intracellular fluids rapidly. Hypotonic, would cause an influx of fluids. Now I can't recall if its moving to a hyper tonic or hypotonic solution that invertebrates are especially susceptible to, but I'm keeping it on the list of suspects combined with too short an acclimation. Especially if the feather dusters are doing fine.

A comparison of water from the 93 to the 10 would be useful.

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

Any other crabs or shrimps in the smaller aquarium?
Take the water report and toss it out. We've had many discussions how useless they are... But we generally have very good tap water in this region of the country. It's very unlikely tap killed your critters...

You don't use tap from a hot water heater by chance, do you?

 

[Neoz]

LittleBee I have a very nice refractometer in it's own case with everything you need. Pm me your address and I'll ship it to you. It's a spare that doesn't get used, so I would like to give it a nice home were it will be appreciated.

 

[LittleBee]

I will test my 93 today to see what that looks like compared to the 10.

No I don't use water from a water heater. And yes I have another small blue leg hermit in the small tank. Also four snails and two feather dusters.

Dave, thank you so much!!

 

[Capt_Cully]

Nice Neoz! Dave is good people.

If the other inverts are fine, I think we have our answer.

 

[tmz]

That may not long enough to acclimate to a large swing in specific gravity for invertebrates. Having them move to a hypertonic solution would cause them to lose intracellular fluids rapidly. Hypotonic, would cause an influx of fluids. Now I can't recall if its moving to a hyper tonic or hypotonic solution that invertebrates are especially susceptible to, but I'm keeping it on the list of suspects combined with too short an acclimation. Especially if the feather dusters are doing fine.

A comparison of water from the 93 to the 10 would be useful.

I agree. A move to a higher hypertonic solutions pickles them and hypotonic bloats them. Don't think it matters which way high or low shifts in asalinity for invetebrates. They are istononic, their internal salinity is controlled by the water around them. Salinity that shifts too high or too low in the water causes a loss of internal chemical balances and much organ function , ie homeostasis, and death. Fish have an internal salinity of 1.008 ; marine fish maintain that by drinking a lot and urinating small amounts of concentrated urine to cope with the hypertonic environment thy live in. Fresh water fish cope wit htheir hypotonic environment by peeing alot and drinking little. For fish drops to 1.008 but not lower wont stress them but rises need to be very gradual.