Some Advice Please On New Set-Up

[Harry1996]

my heremits did but after a few days they were eating more than the others and moving more as well.

 

[fishboytoo]

Thanks harry, I hope this guy comes around too. It actually seems a bit worse today. Overnight he crawled under/behid some rock and has stayed there the whole day. He has been pulled into his shell most of the time too. There was a point where I actually thought he had left teh shell-as he was so far pulled in I couldn't see any bit of him. I tried putting a little piece of dried seaweed by his shell, hoping he might eat it. It has stayed proped up againts one of his legs for several hours. I think the snails will get it tonight. Doesn't bode well for Mr Crabs in my books-but I'm no expert and I hope I'm wrong. I took a picture of his shell sitting there:

Some other pics of tank set-up:

 

[seffieuk]

That looks really nice

hermits often shed after going into a new tank - I wouldn't worry

Seffie x

 

[CoMan]

That looks wicked!

 

[simonas]

I;m impressed looking forward to your fish!!

what fish you going to get first!?

 

[sorgan]

that is nice looking rock! cant wait to see it with some colour on it

 

[fishboytoo]

Thank you for the compliments! I am happy with the way it looks so far.

I added my first fish yesterday a firefish goby/dartfish. He hid under the rocks for half the day, then was actively looking for food on the current. He took a couple small pieces of mysid and seems to be fine with the new accomodations. I also added a skunk cleaner shrimp and a green star polyp. The shrimp tried cleaning my hand this morning, pretty neat sensation. Also got another 2" bristle worm along with the coral. I had caught him with tweezers, id'd him(or so i think)as the good kind and let him loose in the tank. My wife is less than impressed with it, her exact words-"I don't like that AT ALL!"

Mr Crabs seems to be doing even worse. He had crawled deeper under the rock and was there on his back all day yesterday. This morning I didn't see any movement of his legs so I moved his shell. He did not even retreat all the way in as I dragged him across the sand. When I left him at the front of the tank, he kind of half-way crawled out of his shell and then went back in. I have not seen him retreat fully into the shell all day, as he used to do this before.

I wonder if there is anything I can do for him. I was looking online and someone had suggested Melafix bath for a sick hermit, but I think this was for a land hermit. Anyone know if this is a good idea for Mr Crabs here? I have a bottle of melafix, so it would be problem to try it. The bottle doesn't say anything about saltwater use in general, is it ok for marine use?

 

[Harry1996]

i dont realy know what that stuff is so i carnt help you there. so its just one of the hermits? how long did you acclimatise them for? here a link on acclimatisation http/www.fishmansfrags.co.uk/acclimatisation.html

 

[fishboytoo]

i dont realy know what that stuff is so i carnt help you there. so its just one of the hermits? how long did you acclimatise them for? here a link on acclimatisation http/www.fishmansfrags.co.uk/acclimatisation.html

It's not that important now, Mr Crabs succumbed shortly after my last post yesterday. It was/is only the one crab that showed any problems. I also put in 4 dwarf blue leg and 1 scarlet hermit at the same time-they are doing fine. I did drip acclimate for a little more that 1 hour as I was adding snails at the same time too. Perhaps 2 hours would be better, as the link suggests? The snails seem to be fine also. I havn't seen 1 of the nassarius since I put him in, but I have seen his siphon poking out of the sand.

I really think that the crab I purchased was not healthy to begin with. I should not have made the purchase as I suspected the shipment was new, and there was one dead crab in the tank. When I went back to the store all the rest were gone too-I don't know if they died or were sold. I really wanted an electric blue legged hermit, so I jumped at the opportunity. Total foolishness on my part, knowing better but going ahead anyway. At least I don't feel responsible for his death.

 

[Harry1996]

i think an hour would of been enough. i did 2 hours once because i had a peppermint shrimp,5 nassarius snails,5 astra snails,1 mexican turbo snail and 2 scarlet hermits. so what are you going to get next? shrimp? another hermit? some snails?

 

[seffieuk]

Inverts are very sensitive so two hours would be good - try not to have too many different types of hermits, it can cause problems between them

Ah, you have learnt one of the rules: Never buy from a tank with a dead animal in

Seffie x

 

[fishboytoo]

i think an hour would of been enough. i did 2 hours once because i had a peppermint shrimp,5 nassarius snails,5 astra snails,1 mexican turbo snail and 2 scarlet hermits. so what are you going to get next? shrimp? another hermit? some snails?

I'm guessing that one hour was probably ok, at least for all the other inverts it has seemed to be fine.
I would like to add another astrea snail, I think the one I have is fantastic at cleaning up the algae.
I am also considering another electric blue hermit, but I have not seen many, other than the one I bought, for sale around here. I have been thinking of adding more of the dwarf blue leg hermits, as they are so small they can't possibly be eating much-and they are rather active. I am not sure how many of those really is too many. I have been watching the amount of algae and the CUC hasn't gotten all of it yet-so I think I don't have too many at the moment.

I would also jump at the chance to get a couple sexy anemone shrimp. I have not seen them for sale around here either.

More than likely, I will at least wait until the end of the week before adding anything new as I want to give the tank some time to accomodate what I have already added this past week.

 

[fishboytoo]

Inverts are very sensitive so two hours would be good - try not to have too many different types of hermits, it can cause problems between them

Ah, you have learnt one of the rules: Never buy from a tank with a dead animal in

Seffie x

I certainly can extend the acclimation period in the future.
How many kinds is too many do you think? Would I be ok with the 3 types: scarlet, dwarf blue leg, and electric blue?

I really did know better than to do that. I guess I was just hopefull that things would turn out ok. Darn that temptation!

 

[Harry1996]

well i have 2 types of hermits and they seem to be ok. havnt had any probs yet.

 

[seffieuk]

We need Donya here to help us out - but some hermits are more aggressive than others. Take a read of her thread re: hermits

Seffie x