Missing blue hermit. Think it's dead. Need to get it out?

[dieKriegerin]

Hi, so I have a new (cycled) 25 gallon reef. It's been running 6 weeks, and I've been dosing with microbacter 7 as it's creeping up on its first algae bloom. So I put a turbo snail and a hermit crab in there. I got a few extra shells. The snail is 3x the size of the crab anyway, but just so there was a choice for the crab.

Looks like one of the shells I got had dead snail matter in it, and I realized it yesterday because that shell was in a different position from when I put it there and I noticed the smell when I removed it from the tank. The ammonia spiked to 3ppm. Crab was nowhere to be found. The turbo snail was moving along. Couldn't do a water change because I had just returned home from buying the water and it was cold, so it's been heating overnight for me to do a change today, even though now the ammonia is back down to 0. No nitrites. <5ppm nitrate. I'm gonna sift through the sand because I have to clean the snail poop off the sand bed, but the crab is so small.

I think the dead snail shocked it, and I think it's dead, but I don't think I'm gonna find a tiny shell the same color as the sand and 3 live rocks. If I don't find it, how bad is it going to affect my parameters? I put this clean up crew in there to prep for fish. Slightly peeved.. wish I noticed that one shell had livestock in it when I got them.

Thanks in advance...

 

[dmy535]

It won’t mess with your parameters. If he is dead, the nitrate bacteria will consume it. That’s their purpose. Don’t lose sleep over it.

 

[dieKriegerin]

It won’t mess with your parameters. If he is dead, the nitrate bacteria will consume it. That’s their purpose. Don’t lose sleep over it.

Thank you; I was concerned!