Red leg hermits dying ... help!!

Vahanyos · Dec 30, 2016

Hey guys

So today I found another dead red leg hermit in my tank... it's a 60g, about 2 months old now, and I don't have any fish in there. I used to have a cleaner shrimp that I killed (he molted, and I did a big water change and lost a lot of water to evap so i stressed him out too much), but this was maybe 2 weeks ago...

My parameters are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and about 10-20 nitrates. Ph is at 8.4 (although it looks a little more purple, could be just the lighting). Temp is 80, and salinity is 1.24.

I have lost a total of 6 red leg hermits since I started, and I can't figure out why what it's from. I stopped feeding mysis shrimp since there's no fish in there and started only feeding phyto feast. My corals are doing fine except for my shrooms who get smaller, then bigger with more light... my galaxia seems to be doing okay. No sign of bleaching except for an area that I accidentally poked him in.

I find empty shells around, and I search the tank and find the poor hermits body just laying there. I added more shells because I thought my crabs were killing each other over shells, but there's plenty now and this little guy died. Am I starving them? Should I occasionally feed mysis instead of only phyto?

Any input appreciated.

Brew12 · Dec 31, 2016

Vahanyos said:
Hey guys

So today I found another dead red leg hermit in my tank... it's a 60g, about 2 months old now, and I don't have any fish in there. I used to have a cleaner shrimp that I killed (he molted, and I did a big water change and lost a lot of water to evap so i stressed him out too much), but this was maybe 2 weeks ago...

My parameters are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and about 10-20 nitrates. Ph is at 8.4 (although it looks a little more purple, could be just the lighting). Temp is 80, and salinity is 1.24.

I have lost a total of 6 red leg hermits since I started, and I can't figure out why what it's from. I stopped feeding mysis shrimp since there's no fish in there and started only feeding phyto feast. My corals are doing fine except for my shrooms who get smaller, then bigger with more light... my galaxia seems to be doing okay. No sign of bleaching except for an area that I accidentally poked him in.

I find empty shells around, and I search the tank and find the poor hermits body just laying there. I added more shells because I thought my crabs were killing each other over shells, but there's plenty now and this little guy died. Am I starving them? Should I occasionally feed mysis instead of only phyto?

Any input appreciated.

Just to clarify, your salinity is 1.024, correct?
And yes, you do need to feed your CuC. It doesn't take much but if you don't have algae in your tank they need to eat something. I'm not sure this is what the problem is though because I suspect they would start trying to eat the corals if there was no other food source.

Vahanyos · Dec 31, 2016

Hey Brew, to be honest I think they might be eating my goniopora... I've seen one occasionally crawl on it but I'm not sure if they crawl on corals every now and then or they're trying to eat it... I'm going to try putting mysis every two days or so and just a little amount of it just to be on the safe side... i can see a dead spot on it, the rock is showing with the holes of where they used to be but other parts of it are semi extended... see attached pic... not sure if that's just from my Goni bleaching out or it's parts they ate :/

And yes my salinity is 1.024

Brew12 · Dec 31, 2016

Vahanyos said:
Hey Brew, to be honest I think they might be eating my goniopora... I've seen one occasionally crawl on it but I'm not sure if they crawl on corals every now and then or they're trying to eat it... I'm going to try putting mysis every two days or so and just a little amount of it just to be on the safe side... i can see a dead spot on it, the rock is showing with the holes of where they used to be but other parts of it are semi extended... see attached pic... not sure if that's just from my Goni bleaching out or it's parts they ate :/

And yes my salinity is 1.024

Sounds like you might be starving them, so I think you are on the right track with doing some light feeding.