Blue-leg hermit question

[leafyseadragon]

My tank is more than one year old, but for some reason I have had bad luck with blue-leg hermits (C. tricolor). I put them in the tank, and they slowly die off. Acclimation was slow, no problems with the water.

I was just wondering: is a tank at 82 degrees too warm for them? The reason I ask is that LiveAquaria list the temp as 72-78, but my tank has always been above that range.

 

[quarryshark]

Doubt if thats the problem. I keep my tank at 82 and my blue's are fine.
Do you have bigger shells for them to move in to? Any other inverts? NWater parameters?

 

[theatrus]

Bigger shells is important. You start noticing the hermits following snails around when its time

I have my water at 80 and I'm fine as well.

 

[steve r]

i was told by my LFS that blues just dont seem to live as long as some other hermits. they can be pretty agressive. i noticed mine slowly disappear sometimes. i keep my temp at 80. the extra shells does seem important. the blues i have had the longest are the biggest. the find the good shells

steve r

 

[quarryshark]

IMO thats really the key, keeping bigger shells for them. I have at least 3 blues that are over a year old and are doing great. One of them is about 2" across now....he is HUGE and beautiful.

 

[steve r]

wow! thats a huge blue leg! my scarlets are not even that big. i saw an atlantic bule hermit at the LFS, now thats a big hermit

steve r

 

[RocketSeason]

I have blue legged hermits and I have lost about half of them (started with about 12.)

I too am curious as to why they have dissapeared. My only thought is that hitchhiker crabs got to them. is this a possiblility?

 

[gozetec02]

I have 3 Blue Legged Hermits and they seem fine. I know they do bad if the PH is wrong. I had to buy some serith snails $0.65 each. I bought 6 of them and by the next morning the hermit crabs pulled them out of the shells and it was now their portable home. The fish ate the meaty part of the snail because I saw one crab do this. But Blue Legged hermits are really small mine are about 1/4" in size. I can't wait till they get bigger they already look cool.

 

[leafyseadragon]

Yea, I was being stupid. I let the QT sit for over 3 weeks. I added the water to raise the salinity back to the right level, figured the nitrates would be fine if nothing were in the tank but LR. But then you guys reminded me about the pH, it was about 7.8. I did a 30% water change and buffered the water a little too. Thankfully I seem to have only lost one hermit.

 

[sevise]

I have too many blue legs to count. I think I put a total of around 50 in my 120Gal. One of the larger one got himself a neo-modern cerith shellwithin a week. I haven't lost any in the main, that I know of at least. I have however lost 4 in my Mantis tank, 1 guess as to why. My water temps around 80.