Emerald and Porcelain Crab

[Schgred]

I have had an emerald crab and a porcelain crab die in my tank in the last few months. Nothing else has died. I have fish, hermit crabs, snails, shrimp, starfish, worms, and coral do just fine. But for some reason the only thing that has died are those two crabs.

All of my parameters are just right with low nitrates. Any idea why this may be happening?

 

[Mebbid]

What is your salinity / temperature at?

 

[Schgred]

Salinity has been 1.025 and the temp has been 78.

 

[54seaweed]

how did you acclimate the crabs
they cant handle big parameter changes

 

[Schgred]

I did a drip acclimation on the porcelain crab and the emerald crab was just floating the bag. The crabs both lived at least a month and a half.

 

[54seaweed]

were they getting enough food

did you do anything different to your tank before you found them dead

 

[Schgred]

Maybe they weren't getting enough food. There is bubble algae that the emerald crab never ate. I put Kent Microvert in the tank to feed the filter feeders. There is obviously enough food for the hermits and snails to survive.

 

[Mebbid]

How much time was between their deaths?

 

[Schgred]

Probably one month.

 

[Mebbid]

Ahh. It's hard to say then, it's most likely two different reasons that they died. What fish do you have? They might have been killed while molting.

 

[Schgred]

A very small three striped damsel, two clowns, and one royal gramma.

There is a part of me that is hoping that the porcelain crab parts that I saw are in fact a molt. But I can't find him anywhere and it looked like more than a molt.

 

[54seaweed]

have you done wc in time frame of the death
was there maybe a swing in salinity or other parameters or temp
they are sensitive with the slightest changes
was anything else effected besides crabs

 

[54seaweed]

if indeed a molt he just may be hiding in the rocks

 

[Schgred]

Yes I did water changes after the deaths and there weren't any changes in salinity or other parameters.

No other deaths.

Aren't emerald crabs and porcelain less sensitive than starfish and certain snails?

 

[54seaweed]

I was asking before things started going south

 

[Schgred]

I don't recall if a water change happened before they died. They hide all the time so it is really hard to know when they even died.

 

[Schgred]

So as some may have expected, the porcelain crab showed up after all! He just molted. I haven't seen the emerald crab so I'm assuming that he is dead.