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Nitrates vs hermits


Hermitcrabs

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Hermitcrabs

Heres my water parameters...

Ph 7.9

Ammonia 0

Nitrites 0

Phosphates 0.25

Nitrates 40 (I'm pretty sure. no less than 30)

Temp 77

 

Here's the problem. My hermits keep turning over and not moving. When I turn them over they turn right back over. The first day they were fine, but the next, this happened. I'm pretty sure what's causing the high nitrates is two month old filter media, which I will replace immediately, and I'm adding a nitrate absorber. If I'm right that it's nitrates hurting them, will they be ok? It's only been 4 days since I added them. I need to know soon so they don't die!

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But will what I'm proposing work and will the hermits recover?

I've never seen a " flippy " arthropod survive to walk again. I seen spiders, ants, beetles, roaches, crickets, and many more go flippy, sometimes it happens after they have encountered a toxin, either way its serious damage and they can't recover. You unfortunately should euthanize them, one of my arthropod euthanization methods is crush the cephalothorax, a hammer works fine. Little messy but there won't be suffering from that.
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What amphipod said. Hermits and other inverts are sensitive to changes in things like nitrates so with those high nitrates, I'm pretty sure they're done for.

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Hermitcrabs

Thanks. They are starting to come out of their shells and moving a bit. Will they still die? Also, how do I euthanize them if I want to save the shells? I don't want to hurt them to much.

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Thanks. They are starting to come out of their shells and moving a bit. Will they still die? Also, how do I euthanize them if I want to save the shells? I don't want to hurt them to much.

if they can start walking with normal coordination, they aren't suffering and should pull through. If they can't walk they have endured permanent neurological damage and need to be killed. If you want to save the shells, a pair of tweezers to hold them out of the shell and a precise death blow will do the trick, then carefully remove the rest the dead hermit.
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Hermitcrabs

When I get the nitrates down, and if they can recover, how long will it take? The more info the better.

They are just hanging out of their shells while upside down, and can go in their shells. Most hermits are Upright just Not moving around.

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To be honest I wouldn't know how long it would take since I never have seen a flippy recover. Maybe you got to your hermits before permanent damage, I honestly don't know. maybe give them like 2 days and see if they can get better, if they do the same lingering vegetable behavior you know what to do.

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Hermitcrabs

Ok thanks. I just edited it to say you probably didn't see it but most aren't upside down now. But still aren't moving. Thanks for the help.

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Hermitcrabs

Two have come out of their shells and stayed out. Since yesterday night I am using a nitrate remover pad one over another in the filter. Today I also put in max I could nitrate detoxifier in. When out of their shells they can move.

Also, some are staring to move around more!

One or two are trying to flip over

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To my knowledge there's no such thing as a dose-able "nitrate" remover. Temporary binders for ammonia, sure but most detox products are just to buy time for some other forms of export to do the job. Do a series of 50-75% water changes to get your nitrates down.

 

As for recovery... hermit crabs are about the toughest invertebrates around. If anything can recover from your chemistry issue, it's them. Don't break out the hammer just yet.

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Hermitcrabs

I know it's just temporary so I was going to do a cap daily because the nitrate pad works pretty slow. Am I right to do this?

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I dunno, out of the shells is bad ju-ju. They must be having a very hard time, hardy or not.

 

 

I know it's just temporary so I was going to do a cap daily because the nitrate pad works pretty slow. Am I right to do this?

And why are you not doing big water changes? How big of a tank? I would do a 100% water change if the tank is small.

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Those pads saturate pretty quickly. I doubt they'd make even a dent in nitrates at the concentrations you're testing at.

 

I tried the aquaripure version for awhile but found it more effective to run just plain bonded floss & swap it out once or twice a week to get rid of excess food and detritus in general.

 

Now, a 50% water change will lower your nitrate levels from 40 to 20 right off the bat. You may also want to cut back on the quantity of food you use - I find a couple smaller feedings generally benefit my critters more and still use up less food than when I do one larger feeding a day. Less leftover food = less decomposing matter.

 

Plus that's what my hermits are in there to deal with, anyways.

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How high are nitrates, hermits can be in absolutely disgusting water and be fine. I'm willing to bet they were shocked some how or a heavy metal was introduced.

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Hermitcrabs

I know no heavy metals are in there, and the only acclimation I did was temperature, but they were fine when I put them in. What do yo mean by "Saturate quickly"? if you're saying it saturates then you can't use it, it says you can just wash it and reuse it. Also, the people who reviewed it said it worked for them. By the way I'm pretty sure they're getting better. If this'll help, they're thin lined hermits, and dun dun dun! I got them from the ocean. I know they aren't sick, because this happened to my first herms.

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The material of the pad will absorb nitrates, but will quickly bind all it can and then cease to do so, especially with higher concentrations present. Likewise you can't "wash it out" and restore this property. And no company EVER states "yeah, our product isn't as awesome as we'd like you to believe". ;)

 

Glad they're doing better, though. Incidentally, thin stripe hermits get pretty big. As in inhabit a conch shell big.

 

That's a pretty big margin of error... maybe see if a local store will run a quick check with a different test kit?

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Hermitcrabs

I know then get big. 4 inches. I'll get petco to run a test tomorrow.

I'm gonna order a nitrate test kit easier to read

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