Crabs doing a great job!

[MarkW19]

Well, a week after adding 11 hermit crabs (blue/red legs) I'm pleased to say they're doing a great job, much better than I expected, and the majority of the algae in my tank is now gone.

Which is now making me worry my crabs won't have anything to eat.

If all the algae goes in my tank, which in time I guess it will (no new algae is growing back now thanks to the Rowaphos I've had in for the past couple of months), what can I put in my tank for the hermits to feed on?

 

[BlueDolphin]

Mark,

You could always add a little frozen fish food or seaweed. My crabs love both!

 

[GrndHog]

My crabs go after the seaweed

 

[MarkW19]

Nori would be good then I guess? Broken up and spinkled around the sand?

 

[Atari]

They will eat pretty much anything!

It's a lot of fun to watch them falling over each other to get to the food.

 

[MarkW19]

There's a lot of dead algae amongst the sand just lying there, and thankfully very little new growing back (Rowaphos did the trick - cheers Atari and others ).

Just wondering if the dead stuff will affect the water quality?

I plan to get it out at some stage by sieving the top layer of the sand, bit by bit, but I'm a bit worried I'll create an ammonia spike. So, I'm probably going to do a small bit at a time, making sure only to disrupt the very top layer of the sand. Then measure for ammonia etc. over the next few days, then move onto the next bit until the whole tank is done.

 

[Atari]

Try siphoning it out.

I got one of those plastic turkey basters from amazon.com.. it's pretty useful for stuff like that.

 

[MarkW19]

A turkey baster from amazon??

 

[Atari]

Heh yeah.. this is the one I got >> Amazon

 

[Bearfan]

What makes it better than a normal $1 baster?

 

[Atari]

The fact that it would cost me a lot to ship a $1 baster over from America, not to mention the fees for currency exchange.

 

[MarkW19]

Hehe!

Cheers Atari, just ordered one.

 

[austinsdad]

Hey MarkW, presuming you're feeding the fish anyway, don't worry, the crabs will get food.

 

[MarkW19]

Are you sure?

I was told this about my 3 shrimp, which clearly died from starvation.

They went mad every time I put a bit of food in, trying to get to some.

My new shrimp does the same, and I target fed him to test the other day, and he ate LOADS. Gulping each bit back.

I thought crabs ate only algae? My fish eat every single bit of food I put in, so the crabs won't get any apart from the TINIEST scraps.

 

[austinsdad]

IMO MarkW, more food at feeding time might work. My fish are greedy too, but I make sure some hits the bottom and falls on the rocks. They can't devour all of it. Of course, watch your nitrates if you start feeding more. There is a balance I think you can find.

I also use the Formula 2 pellets with garlic frequently - in addition to flakes and frozen stuff. That always finds its way to the rocks and bottom.

 

[austinsdad]

Oh yeah, crabs eat everything. Fish, other crabs, frozen food, flakes, ...

 

[MarkW19]

I target-feed my shrimp every other day via a tube so the food sinks down to the bottom.

I plan to feed my crabs once a week, doing the same thing but just letting a few pieces of food settle on the sand at a few places in the tank. They'll then have a bit to go at for a few days.

Do you think this will be enough?

 

[MarkW19]

Now that 95% of the algae has gone in my tank, will my crabs have enough to eat??

When should I start getting worried and target feed them?

 

[MarkW19]

I'm going to get some seaweed to put on the bottom of the tank for my crabs.

What seaweed should I get - green, red or purple? Will also use this for my fish if poss.

I've been looking for some Nori but I've had no luck finding any anywhere in the UK yet...