Help!!! Hermit Crabs Dead!

[FishmanJosh]

I added 4 red legged hermits into my 20g last night along with 6 turbo snails and 1 emerald crab. My snails and emerald all went off by this morning and are now doing fine, but my hermits did absolutly nothing. I aclimated them all the same nd my water paras are fine. 2 of the hermits moved about a bit but arent doing much, but one of them is just staying inside his shell and I can see his legs but hes very still so possibly dead. Also one of them just crawled out of his shell this morning and died. I will also point out all his colours are still there put I poked him and he is pretty dead. Do hermit crabs molt? Because if thy do it looks like the whole crab and not a carcass. I can post pictures if you like. PLEASE HELP!

 

[joy13]

Yes hermit crabs do molt.

 

[FishmanJosh]

Yes hermit crabs do molt.

Well its definatley dead coz its the entire body (I think) but it has got a sort of curly white bit at the end.

 

[match55]

yes and they do molt.
I think its dead, the white thing at the end is probably the tiny legs that it use to hold the shell.

my hermits' molts don't have the white part.

 

[FishmanJosh]

Can nobody explain why they died though, and why th others are just doing nothing? They're sticking their heads and legs out like they're supposed to and their little filter feeder things are going, but they're not moving at all.

 

[match55]

all 4 died??
if your paraM r fine and they r not movine, probably just taking their time adjusting your tank.
its really weird hermit died that fast, they r hardy and mine about to survive at 40ppm of nitrate.
so my guess is your LFS might not taking good care of them, try to feed them.

oh and 6 turbo for 20gal, I think that's too much, just make sure u have ebough food for them, or the snails won't make it.
if u want snail that work on diatoms, nerite snails is a better choice IME.

 

[FishmanJosh]

2 of them died, one crawled out of its shell, and died. The shop is very good lots of people shop there and its been rated very good by PFK, so I think the shopes good. The guy who owned the shop told me to get 6 turbos and they're quite small and I have LOOOOOAAADDS of different types of algae (because of nitrate bloom) so they should be good for now. Shoul i remove the dead hermits carcass or will my emerald eat it or something?

 

[match55]

remove the hermits, if u already have algae bloom, you don't want extra nitrate in your tank.
your emerald mostly eat algae instead of dead livestocks.
ask your LFS and see if they have nerite snails those guys work really hard!
couple of mine even climb all the way up and fell on the floor, but as soon as I put them back to the water, they move again. I have 10 for my DT about a month, not one died yet.

 

[EscVelocity]

What are your water parameters, and salt level?

 

[RainbowD]

Aren't most hermit crabs land critters? Am I misreading something? If these are the land kind, I believe they drowned. Please educate me if I'm wrong. Thanks, Linda

 

[EscVelocity]

There are both Land hermits and Saltwater hermits.

 

[melosu58]

How did you acclimate them? Inverts need extra care as far as acclimating. Drip acclimating would have been the way to go.

 

[FishmanJosh]

Lol can someone please educate Rainbow.

My paras are:

Nitrate: 10 (getting better)
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
PH: 8.2/8.4
Calcium: 400 (rising to 450 which is where I am aiming for)
Phospate: 0.25
Salinity: 1.026 but coming down