my emerald crab died

[dpdecaro]

Hello

I was wondering what killed my emerald crab. I have two of them. one was about the size of a silver dollar and the other was about a quarter size. Today i found the bigger one laying on his back dead. a couple days ago he seemed real active moving through the tank and eating away. I have a problem with hair alge and aptaisa and was wondering if that is what caused his death or if something else could of. I check the basic 4 levels and they all read good. I have a yellow tang, 2 clowns, lm blemmy and a chromis. He was real good and left my fish alone too. Thanks for your input


David

 

[DonW]

Kind of a dumb question. Are you sure its not a molt?

Don

 

[dpdecaro]

sorry if it's a dumb questiong but if a molt is similiar to snake skin then no it's not a molt. It's a pretty solid structure. I am almost 100% positive it's him. I did move some rock around but none where i found him.


David

 

[matts125]

David,
A crab molt is solid, crabs have an exoskeloton so when they out grow it they molt and will be larger then before after the molt, also they will hide out for a week or two after the molt while they recover, The molt will look exactly like the crab, all legs and hair attached, the only way to tell if it was actually the crab that died is to see if there are any guts inside or wait and see if you see him in there later..


Hope this helps

Matt

 

[DonW]

Sometimes its hard to tell. Take a close look at the eyes. It will be pretty solid feeling.

Don

 

[Detri]

I think DonW ment his question might be dumb, not yours my friend

 

[dpdecaro]

sorry

I guess i should of know what a molt is since i've had a tank for a while. Thank for the information i guess it could be a molt i will have to look and wait and see. Thanks for all your info.

DAvid

 

[matts125]

No sweat David, I think we all have made that mistake sometime in the begining lol....
I hope this is all it turns out to be and your crab is ok. Just let us know what turns out...

Matt

 

[DonW]

I think DonW ment his question might be dumb, not yours my friend

YES. sorry

Don

 

[dpdecaro]

Thanks again

I am all most positive he molted. My mom brought him to school to show her 5 and sixth grade class because they do molt of sort of fish for a life cycle question and they thought it was real cool. Thanks again. now i am just waiting for him to pop up again. How much bigger do they usually get when they molt because he was already a pretty big one.


David

 

[matts125]

he wont be a lot bigger, just maybe enuff to notice, sometimes they do grow a lot but if he is already big then I wouldnt think you would expect it to get much bigger...


Matt