Dead hermit crabs

Three of my hermit crabs (two red-legged and one dwarf blue legged) have died
over the past two weeks. Didn't see the first two, but the last one was
walking around out of his shell and got eaten. I'd had all of the crabs for at
least three months with no problems. The only other things in the ten gallon
tank are two clown fish and astrea snails. Water parameters are very stable
(amonia-0,nitrate-10,nitrite-0,ca-500,ph-8.4,dKh-10,sg-1.024). Any idea what
could cause the loss of so many crabs in such a short period of time?

Thanks

8 or 9 years ago I had a couple of little blue legged hermits that
started to run around naked.
I finally determined that it was copper. I was slowly building up
copper in the tank.

If it is poisoning that's causing them to behave strangely and die it
could be so many other things, but maybe a test for copper is worth a
try.

Erik


On 29 Sep 2004 14:49:10 GMT, (RLIrwin) wrote:

Three of my hermit crabs (two red-legged and one dwarf blue legged) have died
over the past two weeks. Didn't see the first two, but the last one was
walking around out of his shell and got eaten. I'd had all of the crabs for at
least three months with no problems. The only other things in the ten gallon
tank are two clown fish and astrea snails. Water parameters are very stable
(amonia-0,nitrate-10,nitrite-0,ca-500,ph-8.4,dKh-10,sg-1.024). Any idea what
could cause the loss of so many crabs in such a short period of time?

Thanks

"RLIrwin" wrote in message ...
Three of my hermit crabs (two red-legged and one dwarf blue legged) have died
over the past two weeks. Didn't see the first two, but the last one was
walking around out of his shell and got eaten. I'd had all of the crabs for at
least three months with no problems. The only other things in the ten gallon
tank are two clown fish and astrea snails. Water parameters are very stable
(amonia-0,nitrate-10,nitrite-0,ca-500,ph-8.4,dKh-10,sg-1.024). Any idea what
could cause the loss of so many crabs in such a short period of time?

Maybe they just outgrow their shells after molting?