Paranoid? I hope so. Why won't these hermits, well, come out of their shell?

I would leave it in there for the other to eat and provide any ammonia source for your cycling tank, if I remember correctly its relatively new.

Also, he may not even be dead but molting. My scarlet hermit just didn't move for a week until I saw his "dead body" on the bottom of the tank. Most inverts molt within 3-4 days of being in my tank and then have a regular 1-2 times a month molt from what I've noticed so far. He was walking around an hour later.

Best advice when it comes to things that molt (crabs and shrimp) is to not panic and leave well enough alone. Even if it is dead there's not really a point to taking it out. I'm not sure what sort of stress it would cause an invert mid molt to handle/harass it.

Good luck!

 

I filled the tank initially with distilled. It probably has 4 gallons of "top off" water from one of those RO filtered water filling up stations at publix.

(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3392/3327879932_bef35c3d79.jpg)

 

I don't mean to sound like an alarmist, but I believe that distilled water can have small amounts of copper in it if copper pipes, etc. are used at the distillery.

 

That's fine. Copper is even a part of Natural Saltwater (NSW). There's even some copper in some foods and supplements. The only time that this is an issue is if you're using copper-based medications (or if you buy LR from someone who dosed their display tank and LR with copper-based medications).

 

Ok... so one of them is Definitely dead, and not molting as I had hoped.

What do I need to check, water wise? Am. Nitrates, nitrites all at 0. pH at 8.3, temp at 80. Do I need to go buy a test kit for chloride, calcium, and alk? Or can I assume my water is fine, since only one died, and if it were bad, both would have?

Thanks guys

 

I always thought that the reason not to use distilled water was the possibility of copper. You may want to get a copper test kit and see if your water has an elevated amount of copper in it.

There are studies done that show that inverts are very sensitive to copper at very low concentrations.

Since all of your other params look ok, and it seems you acclimated ok, the only conclusions that I would make are either there is something toxic in your tank (like copper) OR it was already unhealthy when you put it in the tank.

Since you can test for copper, you could start there and or your could try adding more specimens and see how they fare...

 

If one is dead and the other is alive, consider that a good sign. Romulus killed Remus (in some mythos, anyway), so you've got some history being repeated, as you aimed for.

In all seriousness, just leave the shell in. It could very well be a molt. From personal experience with hermits (this applies to snails too, as I've seen), I can say the larger varieties are less active overall (don't move as much of the time as the smaller ones), and also take much more time to get out and start moving (minutes instead of seconds, but outliers always exist).

 

that would be funny if it were a molt... did the dead part have a 'curled up' body attached? or was it just face, legs, carapace, and pinchers?

 

I appreciate you guys sticking with me on this thread. If you would continue to check back in your copious free time, that'd be awesome.

The "molting" crab is hanging out of the shell. His entire torso, is just dangling there, and a film has begun to form over his rotting carcass... if he wakes up from this one, It will be quite miraculous.

I'm in the middle of midterms, so I haven't really had a bunch of time for the tank, and don't want to add anything until I'm done (tomorrow). I did stop by the LFS on the way home and buy a calcium test kit. It's a little tedious, but I'm getting a reading of around 450 give or take 20.

So tomorrow after my exam, I'll stop by the LFS and pick up some turbo snails, and maybe a hardy fish. If they have a test kit for copper, I'll get one of those too. My tank is just getting covered in algae (see pic below). The one living hermit is very fast to respond to movement or light - he jumps back into his shell lightning fast... but he's just not moving. He just sits there. All day, all night. He's moved maybe an inch since I got him last week. Ha. I have cleaned some of my glass - So I'm wondering if there is enough algae just floating around for him to grab instead of having to pick through the sand? I don't know.

(the crab pictured is the live one.)

 

It looks like there's algae within his reach. See if his claws are moving back and forth from his mouth. Also check nitrates again, inverts tend to be pretty sensitive to them, and algae/cyano/diatoms doesn't (read: can't) grow without nitrates. Also, get water moving down at the bottom of the tank, it looks like it may be a dead spot down there because of the powerhead's position.