All the hermits belly up

[boogiesnap]

Hey y’all, seeking some experienced guidance, 1st shift tank inspection I found all 3 of my blue leg hermits had died, bodies still in shells. What could have caused this?
Tank-20 gallon long frag, been runnning about 2 months, fully nitrite/nitrate cycled.
Nyos salt, dosing a teeny tiny bit of reef blueprint bacteria daily. Maybe 50 corals, 2 chromis(been in there maybe a month). 20 percent water change every 5 days or so. All parameters within agreed upon specs. I feed plenty, wide variety of foods, nyos goji pellets, DKI pellets(fish love that stuff btw), piscene flakes, dried mysis, frozen mysis.

Only new addition was a couple tablespoons of brs rox carbon.

Any thoughts on what would kill all 3 at once greatly appreciated. Thank you

 

[JNalley]

You didn't specifically state it, but is there a chance copper or more specifically copper sulfate got into the system somehow? That's known to kill inverts (including hermits) and leave everything else alone... If I had money to put down it would be something like that

 

[boogiesnap]

You didn't specifically state it, but is there a chance copper or more specifically copper sulfate got into the system somehow? That's known to kill inverts (including hermits) and leave everything else alone... If I had money to put down it would be something like that

Thank you, in what ways would that get in? I’m unfamiliar and don’t have a copper test

 

[Nano_Man]

Did they have a good supply of food. Starvation can happen on new set ups

 

[JNalley]

Thank you, in what ways would that get in? I’m unfamiliar and don’t have a copper test

Some medications contain copper

 

[C_AWOL]

Did you check the salinity of your frag tank vs the store you got the hermits from?

 

[boogiesnap]

Did they have a good supply of food. Starvation can happen on new set ups

Plenty of foods for sure.

 

[boogiesnap]

Did you check the salinity of your frag tank vs the store you got the hermits from?

I did not. I’m at 1.026. They’ve been in there a good month

 

[boogiesnap]

Some medications contain copper

Mmm, not that then. I didn’t add any meds.

 

[C_AWOL]

I did not. I’m at 1.026. They’ve been in there a good month

Usually they would die a lot sooner than that if theres a big change in salinity so i'm not sure what the cause could be since you mentioned the food supply is adequate

 

[JNalley]

Mmm, not that then. I didn’t add any meds.

I would perform an ICP test and share the results before adding anymore crabs/crustaceans... Maybe the test results will be more illuminating

 

[PharmrJohn]

Did they have a good supply of food. Starvation can happen on new set ups

+1 to this post. First thing that went through my old brain.

 

[reeftankdude]

A 20 percent water change every five days? Marine life love stability. MTC