Hermit Crabs

[techen]

How hard are they? I keep seeing sudden spikes in nitrate I plan to do a water change when my marine salt comes through the post but am worried if it keeps spiking it may kill them.

They don't do much often unless I put pellets in then they go off on a hunt for them. I guess them being lazy most of the time is normal?

 

[Donya]

Hermit crabs are pretty resilient as marine animals go. Of course, what extremes can be tolerated varies from one species to another, but your Clibanarius tricolor are pretty darned hardy when it comes to ammonia/nitrite/nitrate spikes. But, a spike of 20ppm is a lot less serious than a spike of 40ppm or more. What level are you getting?

They don't do much often unless I put pellets in then they go off on a hunt for them. I guess them being lazy most of the time is normal?

That's normal when the crabs are well-fed. If would be safe to let them fast for a few days if the salt will arrive soon. There may be some things hidden in there that are contributing to the waste spikes. Also, do you see the hermits eat all of the food you've added? If you see one go off some place sneaky with a bit of food and then return shortly after looking for more, then they may be stashing it. Food caching is another thing that can be solved by a few days of fasting.

 

[techen]

Hermit crabs are pretty resilient as marine animals go. Of course, what extremes can be tolerated varies from one species to another, but your Clibanarius tricolor are pretty darned hardy when it comes to ammonia/nitrite/nitrate spikes. But, a spike of 20ppm is a lot less serious than a spike of 40ppm or more. What level are you getting?

They don't do much often unless I put pellets in then they go off on a hunt for them. I guess them being lazy most of the time is normal?

That's normal when the crabs are well-fed. If would be safe to let them fast for a few days if the salt will arrive soon. There may be some things hidden in there that are contributing to the waste spikes. Also, do you see the hermits eat all of the food you've added? If you see one go off some place sneaky with a bit of food and then return shortly after looking for more, then they may be stashing it. Food caching is another thing that can be solved by a few days of fasting.

I think my nitrate was hitting borderline 10 ppm but I believe it's still rising up if not slowly. I'll keep an eye on it while I wait for my salt. I may end up doing a 50% water change and add new salt/ro water.

As for feeding, I drop a few cut in half pellets. They tend to sit ontop of them and eat them very slowly as there about the same size as them. I have seen a few pellets dissappear along with a crab or two so I guess there hiding them. I'll stop feeding them for a few days.

 

[Donya]

5-10ppm is actually a normal running level for a lot of tanks, particularly new ones. Getting below 5ppm can even be hard in established tanks without pretty beefy filtration like a lot of skimming and/or biological nutrient sinks like a well-kept deep sand bed or macroalgae. Definitely fast for a couple days though; does sound like you've got food caching going on. Even if something else consumed the pellets (there will be worms in the rock that might do it) a few days fast won't harm anything.

 

[techen]

5-10ppm is actually a normal running level for a lot of tanks, particularly new ones. Getting below 5ppm can even be hard in established tanks without pretty beefy filtration like a lot of skimming and/or biological nutrient sinks like a well-kept deep sand bed or macroalgae. Definitely fast for a couple days though; does sound like you've got food caching going on. Even if something else consumed the pellets (there will be worms in the rock that might do it) a few days fast won't harm anything.

I'll do that then, I haven't seen any worms at all lately. I switch over to my LED lighting which made a ton of difference but I wont be moving into corals until I put 240 quid into a kent bioreef.

 

[marineman24]

as it goes most hermit crabs are hardy little things.
each species differ from how active they can be, i have 3 kinds of crab in my tank and ther active all day and all night
tho my emerald is more during the early evening.

ur nitrate is a little high, maybe a slight water change will do the trick to bring it back down again, and as others have said i would hold back on the feeding for a while.
these little critters can go a long time with no food without a problem, as most of the pellets are probably buried within your substrate for safe keeping.
tho if you have gobies, they shud have no problem in finding and eating them themselves...
good luck.