dead arrow crab

[drobbins]

I added an Arrow crab 2 days ago. Currently, in my reef tank I have a yellow tang, clown, cleaner shrimp, 2 peppermint shrimps, snails and hermit crabs. I noticed tonight that the arrow crab was being eaten by the cleaner shrimp. I'm thinking that the cleaner shrimp is pretty docile. The arrow crab hung out at the top of the tank near the intake on the power jet. I made sure that he was not getting sucked in. It just seemed that he liked that spot. I'm wondering if the arrow crab was just not happy in my tank or if the other inhabitants became predators? I really like the arrow crab but am new to them. Should I add another?

 

[DragonForce]

Arrow crab is an awsome looking character indeed. They will however harass your other inhabitants. The peps and cleaner would definatly not mess with him. It could have been acclimation, stress etc. I'm assuming you checked the water? Inverts sometimes just don't make it. It's normal for some people to acclimate for up to 3 hours.

 

[drobbins]

I actually checked the water the day I put him in and everything was fine(nitrate is a little high but not bad). When you say acclimate for 3 hours what exactley do you mean? Floating him in the bag to acclimate water temp. or actually putting water from my tank in the bag(forgive me, I'm learning every day!)

 

[DragonForce]

Ya, im pretty new to the game as well. Inverts such as shrimp and crabs are very sensative to salinity changes. I know alot of LFS keep their water 1.021 give or take. Say the salinity in your aquarium is 1.024-1.025 thats a rather large leap for these animals. They could easily go into shock, or have severe stress only to die shortly after tank introduction. (my first shrimp was a CBS, I just floated him for 30 mins like the LFS said then dumped him in. He did a few quick jerks, sank to the bottom and died about 5 hours later)

Alot of people use the drip acclimation method to acclimate their animals.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/general.cfm?general_pagesid=19

I personally find that letting my inverts float for 30 minutes, then adding a little bit of tank water to the bag every 10 minutes for 30 minutes works fine.

For fish, I generally float them for 30 mins, then add a large portion of tank water to the bag, and let them float another 10-20 mins.

The slower the acclimation the greater chance of your animals surviving. The drip method is by far the best possible way to give your animals the greatest change of survival. However for me, and alot of people in this hobby, we don't have hours to sit around and acclimate a single shrimp.

It's up to you how you want to do it. HTH

Good luck to you in your future purchases!