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Emerald crab died withing minutes of putting him in


capt_noonie

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76 is too low (someone recommended this. 82 too high. Set your heater to 79 or 80 and see where your display temp ends up.

 

I don't think dripping is necessary. I've had these species and never dripped them. The fact that you show any nitrite is worrying to me. You should have 0 nitrite. Your tank should not see a nitrite spike from three crabs dying unless it is a pico. (I must have missed the size).

 

Return the powder before you open it. All it will do is raise your alk, causing a temporary pH swing. Your pH is fine and will go back to normal after the organic acids dissipate as I said before.

 

You don't need a light. The fish don't know the difference between a cloudy day and the lights not being on.

All of this.

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I will talk to the shop's owner about returning the star. I do like him so much though. Is there ANY type of star that will work in a small tank environment?

Asterinas. Some people claim that they eat corals, but I haven't noticed this with mine. The WetWebmedia folks also claim they have been unfairly demonized.

There are different colors. I got some blue ones early Dec. the size of an exlamation point, and now they are 0.25", and I believe they get to around 0.75". They're perfect for my 3-gallon pico, and very pretty. Named them all Twinkle.

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you should really return the Sand star. it will die... and please do research before impulse buying.

Well if the crabs died from a form a shock would the starfish not be experiencing the same effects? I mean yes, starfish can keep themselves together for a while but if it keeps getting moved from tank to tank incorrectly it will die from shock before starving.

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capt_noonie
76 is too low (someone recommended this. 82 too high. Set your heater to 79 or 80 and see where your display temp ends up.

 

I don't think dripping is necessary. I've had these species and never dripped them. The fact that you show any nitrite is worrying to me. You should have 0 nitrite. Your tank should not see a nitrite spike from three crabs dying unless it is a pico. (I must have missed the size).

 

 

All of this.

I was to understand that low nitrite levels were acceptable, but nitrates must be at zero. I retested this morning again and readings are all the same. ph 8.0, ammonia 0, nitrate 0, nitrite 5.0.

 

I have turned my heater down to 79/80 this morning.

 

The star has been fairly active, I'm sure searching for food. While I was doing my testing this morning, he was up on the side of the tank. I thought oh cool, he's climbing up. Then while I'm looking at him, he just falls right off the glass and plops on the sand. Oh great, he's dead I think. He did manage to right himself in about a minute or less.

 

Well if the crabs died from a form a shock would the starfish not be experiencing the same effects? I mean yes, starfish can keep themselves together for a while but if it keeps getting moved from tank to tank incorrectly it will die from shock before starving.

I was afraid of this also.

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I was to understand that low nitrite levels were acceptable, but nitrates must be at zero. I retested this morning again and readings are all the same. ph 8.0, ammonia 0, nitrate 0, nitrite 5.0.

Ammonia, and Nitrite should be zero. Nitrates should be low, but are considerably less toxic than ammonia or nitrites.

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For what its worth, I have lost two emerald green crabs from two different vendors. They were both doa which is wierd since nothing else has arrived that way. Here's proof:

 

IMG_0618.jpg

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capt_noonie
Ammonia, and Nitrite should be zero. Nitrates should be low, but are considerably less toxic than ammonia or nitrites.

I'm probably getting nitrates and nitrites mixed up. FWIT the 3rd test I'm doing comes out 0, and the last lest I'm doing comes out 5.0 (the 2nd to the lowest reading). I do the tests in order of what the instruction booklet says. Again, notes at home, and I'm at work.

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TheUnfocusedOne
As others have said, drip acclimation is the way to go. Also, you never want to let anything float for 3 hours, especially if the lights are on. Remember, there's not much water in the bags, so being that close to your lights will heat it up rather quickly.

 

 

False, if the bag is floating in the water it won't get any hotter than the temp of the tank. The only thing you have to worry about is the water getting dirty.

 

 

Need I remind all of you that people ship emerald crabs daily around the country? 1-2 days in a bag is a lot longer than 3 hours.

 

 

I have never done more than float acclimate any of my inverts, and the salinity of my tanks have ranged between 1.020 and 1.025.

 

Something tells me theres more to the story since your other inverts are doing fine.

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capt_noonie
False, if the bag is floating in the water it won't get any hotter than the temp of the tank. The only thing you have to worry about is the water getting dirty.

 

 

Need I remind all of you that people ship emerald crabs daily around the country? 1-2 days in a bag is a lot longer than 3 hours.

 

 

I have never done more than float acclimate any of my inverts, and the salinity of my tanks have ranged between 1.020 and 1.025.

 

Something tells me theres more to the story since your other inverts are doing fine.

What else should I be testing for?

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capt_noonie

Alright, sorry for the late reply, unfortunately we've have three more fatalities, the shrimp and the two snails. The star seems to be doing fine.

 

Salinity is at 1.024, ph is back to 8.2, ammonia still 0, as is nitrite, and nitrate is at 5.

 

Talked to another LFS, and the guy said he's personally had a sand star in a 5 g before and did fine. He also showed me what they kept their water at (tested several tanks) and their water was at 1.025 and that many shops keep their water at a much lower level to save money. He said most likely my critters met their demise from salinity shock (what you guys said), and even though Shrimpy and the snails looked fine, they just died a slower death =/.

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Did you fully cycle your tank and how did you cycle it? Probably best to include a picture to see how your tank looks like.

 

Personally when it comes to fish and inverts, I never acclimate anything, just dump it in. Especially inverts that was shipped overnight in small bags of clouded water. all of hte corals I had I just placed in the tank.

 

If you think about it, why would you really need to acclimate if you purchase from a source that knows how to care for livestock in water parameters that are usually ideal for a thriving aquarium. Then that would mean the water should be the similar, maybe temp is a little off but there others shouldn't vary that widely to cause death.

 

If something died from a source that looks like they know how to take care of livestcok then it's a good chance it something in your tank that's the problem more than anything.

 

I have 3 Emerald crabs, one of them was from Petco too. I had 4, I lost one to some mysterious death. It was encapsulated in some clear gel which I noticed only wondering why after netting it the "water" wasn't draining. I'm not sure what could have done it since the crab was a decent sized one.

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