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It has actually been longer than a year, but close enough

I thought I'd do a quick update on my esturine hermit crab setup.

We are going well

The stocking has dwindled due primarily to my lack of knowledge on these creatures. sadly, unless you have a tropical reef setup or are dealing with standard fish, the info is fairly scarce. Still, I've learned a lot. These creatures are fantastic teachers.

Unfortunately I lost the larger of the hermit crabs a few months ago. I couldn't see anything wrong, one moment she was acting fine and the next time I looked she was not. All levels checked out, nothing had changed, no sign of moulting, I'm still not sure what happened. thankfully the little one is still soldiering on, and appears to be quite enjoying being the biggest predator of the tank.

They are SO clever. I knew crabs were quite cluey, but these guys take the cake. The worm feeder is on the opposite side of the tank to anything that can be climbed up on. So what do they do? Well they climb up the filter, sit over the outlet and fill their shells with air bubbles, grab hold of the hydrometer as it goes past and float on over! I'd seen them do it before but I thought it was accidental. This time, when food was involved, they just did it one after the other.

The starfish are going brilliantly, though I could swear one is shrinking. The limpet loves it's new rock and the chiton is the best little critter I've ever knows. I never knew they could move so fast! He's been dubbed Zoomie.

I'm still working on the tank and trying to get time to rig up a good crab-friendly background, but for the moment the little guy just camps out on top of the filter or in the plant leaves. I'm still hunting a few larger shells. I added a chunk of bushrock a month or so ago to give a bit more solid surface area, and all the inmates seem to appreciate it. It isn't as pretty as I'd like, given the little vandals that live in there have no consideration for human aesthetics, but when it is clean and tidy it doesn't look too bad Definitely needs more climbing things though, and maybe more rocks. I have been thinking about getting some LR, but I'm not sure how that'd cope with the low temps. I figure if there are any tropical things living in it, they are likely to drop dead and make a mess.


Piccies

If anyone can give me species names, I'd really appreciate it

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For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

The tank (the rock jumped the water level, it isn't normally that high)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/Callatya/Random%20Fish/TANKSCAPENov0702.jpg

The larger starfishy, Peach. I'm guessing she's having dinner?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/Callatya/Random%20Fish/Starfishwithstomach03.jpg

The snails that seem to be able to survive inquisitive crabs. Anyone know what they are?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/Callatya/Random%20Fish/Snail02.jpg

Zoomie the chiton
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v314/Callatya/Random%20Fish/Chiton01.jpg

And lastly, the little guy taking a walk

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For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

That's a real neat little tank you have there. I bet it's very fun to keep up with. Congrats on the anniversary.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Great picture taking there also.

Very nice, detailed & well taken pictures.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/corydoras/
Member of the Malta Aquarist Society - 1970.
http://www.maltaaquarist.com

Cal, nice hermits
How big is the tank, and is there any other lifeform in there?

Tank is 2'/26USG, 1x 20"Aquaglo, and a Fluval2+ internal. No LR, no skimmer. It is pretty much a FW setup but with SW. I'm now in a position to be able to change it, however I'm not convinced there is a need. It seems to be trundling along fine.

Lifeforms are 2x stars, 1 x hermit, 1 x chiton, 1 x limpet, 2 x snails. There were more, but as you can imagine, finding tankmates for inquisitive hermit crabs is not an easy task. "ohhh, a snail friend! Ohhh, tasty!!" It also isn't like I can really just buy things to go in there as it is unheated and not really a safe/suitable environment for fish or corals. I've considered buying different hermits but I suspect they wouldn't appreciate the temperature drop or the great hairy thug above as a friend.

It does need some more critters, but given the activity and the character of the current inmates, it is not as boring as it sounds

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Looks nice Calla!

You say your starfish appears to be shrinking. Does it get enough to eat? Stars will indead shrink some before they die, if not getting enough to eat. I do not know what kind it is from the pic, but it appears to be a more meat eater than a substrate sifter and such. You may need to hand/target feed him some solid type foods. Try a little piece of raw shrimp and see how it does.



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There is always a bigger fish...

bang some lights over it, that will generate enough heat without adding a heater to have some "impressive" life forms.
I cant see any starfish photos?

Rightio, I'll give that a shot. The shrinking one is the smaller of the two and seems to swing between shrinking and growing. They definitely get into the shrimp but seem to make a go of the algae too. What would be the best way to get decent food to them without the crablet getting to it first?

Pics on the 2nd link Mezzy

Can't do lights or they'll cook over summer and there is nothing in there to use the energy other than the stuff listed above. Can't have soft corals etc with crabs, it'd be lunch. And besides I kind of like this style more than tropical anyway. It is a bit different, like having a personal rockpool rather than a bit of reef.

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Feed the crab first, then place a piece of food in the starfish's path. It will find it. Don't touch the starfish, as this can cause it to scare away, and thus changing its path. But just place the piece of food in the path that the starfish is going, about an inch from it. If you feed the crab first, it should be content during the time it is eating that piece of food, giving the starfish time to find and cover its piece of food.

This is the way I used to feed my starfish. I had to target feed most of my tank, as it had several starfish and several anemonees in it.

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There is always a bigger fish...

Calla, i think it is everyone's best interest to remove the artificial plant from the saltwater setup
go get some mangroves, girl!

Or get some macro algae, calerpa if you don't plan on putting any corals in there. The calerpa is a good way to remove the nitrates, and provide extra oxygen as well. And it grows very easily.

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There is always a bigger fish...

Too easily, it is classed as noxious here and I'd get a fairly hefty fine if I was caught with it. Would it even grow under 0.8W?


Yeah, aesthetically it bites, but I was concerned about putting wood in there as I couldn't find any references to wood in SW tanks. There was a bit on brackish, but they seemed to want the tannins whereas I'm not sure it'd be good for them.


For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

how about some dead live rock? i know that's not grammatically correct but it is what it is, live rock that's dead sold as "reef rock" - like big white spikey rocks. looks decent..ish

I grew cheatomorpha aka brillo pad algae with normal output fluoros. I'd definitely recommend that over caulerpa. I've also seen tanks brilliantly purple with NO fluoros as well....just keep the Ca up and it will grow. To get that you'd have to have some live rock though.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

LR would make a skimmer necessary, yes? I haven't deen dead live rock, dying yes, but not actually dead. It is essentially just reef-like rock at that point, correct?

Aesthetically, I'm planning a fake rock ledge wall for crab climbing, *maybe* a mangrove root if it won't stuff around with the water too badly, and larger shells here and there.

I'll see what sort of plants I can find. Other than the odd single leaf/sprout on LR, I don't ever recall seeing plants for sale anywhere.


For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

that is an extremely, and i mean that in the strongest sense of the word, awsome tank callatya! nice job!

The true test of character is not how much we know how to do, but how we behave when we dont know what to do.

You don't ever *need* a skimmer. They do benefit the tank by reducing the amount of waste in the system, so I recommend them whenever possible. Especially when handling something delicate like corals.

But a hunk of LR would only benefit your system. LR is wonderful at naturally reducing the NH4, NO2, and even NO3 levels in your tank. It also works great as hiding spots and for aesthetics. All this assuming your peice of LR is cured. If uncured it will let out some ammonia into the tank due to things dieing in the rock. So with an established tank I always throw the rock into a bucket of SW for a week with good current and test for NH4.

Also, mangroves don't foul the water unless they die and decay in the tank. In fact, they work the opposite way. They would need more light than the macro algae I mentioned in my previous post.

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Critical Fertilator: The Micromanager of Macronutrients

Ok, I'll look into it My only concern is that it (and whatever is on it) wouldn't handle the low temperatures. Lowest is around 70*F, do you think it would be ok?

Would bivalves be helpful? Unsure of what I can get that doesn't need to breathe though, I think pipis would drown in there.

When I said mangrove root I pretty much meant driftwood. Mangroves are protected over here so even if one would grow, I shouldn't take it. I remember someone saying that driftwood was 'not done' in marine, presumably because of the tannic acid, but it could be OK to try. What do you think? what if I seal it? I'd just like a bit more of a jungle gym in there and dead coral that size will cost a mint (and be the wrong look).

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett