blue clawed lobster

[drummerj]

does anyone have any experience with these? I went and turned my light on this morning and found lobSTAR dead. no reasons for him being dead, every test checked out fine. I'm slightly perturbed.

[roka64]

What are the actual readings? Did he recently molt? What other critters do you have in your tank? If you update "my info" with tank size/equip/critters, we might be able to help better.

[drummerj]

29 gallons, only 1 damsel, 1 goby, an emerald crab, some snails, and a bunch of hermit crabs. I'm at school right now, but i will edit this post in a few hours as to what the exact readings were.

[roka64]

Emerald crabs are opportunistic feeders, and if food is not available to them, they may turn to supplementing their diet with corals or invertebrates. How big is the emerald? How often do you do PWCs?

[melosu58]

As stated earlier make sure that is not the molt. I have a purple/orange lobster and everytime he molts it looks like the real thing and then they go hide for a couple days to hide from predators.

[drummerj]

The emerald crab is the size of a U.S. dime, and there is a TON of organic stuff in the tank, cause i just set up at the beginning of this month, and naturally some died. lets seeee
Ammonia levels read zero, Nitrite and Nitrate were at zero, and pH was between 8.0 and 8.2. My salinity was a little low at 1.018.
Do molts look very like the real thing? It was jammed into a cave like thing, and there are several hiding spots. When I took it out though, it smelled just like rotting lobster. Ive only had the tank for about a month so ive done one pwc so far since filling the tank. I was told every week-two weeks?


hmm, some background on the lobster. I got him free in some live rock, and a good friend held onto him for me until my tank was cycled. I took him back last night, drip acclimated him, and put him in. He walked around the tank for a bit, like he was exploring, then wedged himself into a cave in some rocks and started eating something. Woke up this morning and he was dead as a doornail, or at least his molt was laying there. I hope its only a molt.

[melosu58]

There is one way to find out

[roka64]

Do molts look very like the real thing?

From the ones I have seen, yes.

My salinity was a little low at 1.018.

That might ba a problem. They tend to like it more around sg 1.023-1.025.

I was told every week-two weeks?

That sounds good.
Give him a day or two, if it was the molt, he'll hide, as said before.

[drummerj]

thanks guys! I appreciate it.