Blue hermits MIA

[CU_Reefer]

Three days ago I added 3 blue leg hermits to my tank. One of them stayed where I put it until I moved it today to make sure that it was still alive. The other two crawled around on the LR for a while then crawled to the back side where they stayed till today. I fished them out to see if they were still alive only to find two empty shells. I only have live rock in my tank so there is nothing that I know of that would eat them. The only thing I can think of is that they decided that they both needed new shells. The problem is that I don't have any different shells in the tank. I havn't seen any naked hermits running around but i'm sure they would be hiding if they were out of there shells. If they were still alive would they migrate to new shells if I put some in the tank? If I order shells at the local LFS but they won't get them till next week. Will they survive that long with out there shells?

[oflores]

Do you hear any clicking?

 

You might have a Mantis Shrimp or Pistol Shrimp.

[Aiptasia]

No, they won't survive long at all without their shells. I'm willing to bet that you do have a hitchhiker like a mantis/pisol shrimp in your LR. A clicking noise audible from time to time is a sign that you have one.

 

They are nocturnal. Here's one way to spot them: cover the business end of a flashlight with red cellophane (like off a valentines box) and rubber band it in place, completely covering the end of the light. Turn off all of the tank lights and any lights in the room at night, and wait about 15-20 minutes in the dark. Be patient, give the nocturnal animals time to emerge.

 

Then, turn on your red light flashlight and peep into the tank with it. Most nocturnal animals aren't sensitive to red light, and if you're careful, you may spot the critter causing the problem in your tank.

 

Pistol/mantis shrimps are hard to get rid of, but you can do it if you can take apart your reef rock for a carbonated water bath. What you do is, get a clean new styrofoam beer cooler and fill it with generic carbonated water (no sodium, no quininie, plain plain plain CO2 water) from the grocery store. Get enough to fill up the cooler, then put your reef rocks into the cooler of CO2 water for a little bath. If you know which piece of LR the shrimp has it's hidey hole in, just put that LR in the bath. After 1/2 hour of soaking, the shrimp should emerge looking for oxygen. You can then return the LR to the tank.

 

I wouldn't do this until you can confirm what's eating your crabs. Also, I wouldn't handle your LR without a new pair of leather garden gloves on. They don't call mantis/pistol shrimps "thumb splitters" for nothing. Never grab one with bare hands.

[matt the fiddler]

mabye they [in their temperment] went around and pulled them selves out of their shell for no reason [crab fight club here]

 

yea- i would say they are dead.. i would second the mantis shrimp...

or say they died from something like a chemical imballance in the tank- and the last one ate it...

[CU_Reefer]

I haven’t heard any clicking or anything, and I haven’t seen any signs of anything moving around in my tank. I have a nice coating of algae on all of my sand. I'm sure anything that would be moving around would disturb it. If it is a mantis it will be quite easy to figure out what rock he is hiding in, I only have one. The rock I do have came with vary little life. I have seen no worms or snails yet. How much die off would the CO2 water soak cause if a mantis is the culprit?

 

I'm pretty sure that the last one didn't eat the other two. It hasn't moved more than an inch since I got it. But it did molt the night after I put it in the tank. It could be a chemical imbalance. Would you say that an aggressive water change is in order?