HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Another question for NAT/Naalide/curlz, How often should I add food for the megalopa tank? The water gets cloudy fairly quick even when I'm doing 40% water changes every 10-12 hours.

And is there any safe way to make the water less cloudy? I use ammo lock only in the megalopa jar but I'm never sure when to use it. I've never has a salt water fish tank so this is new ground for me, and it being a nano tank I know things can go bad quickly.

Curlz is still on vacation.
But she made a good documentation, which I used for my larvae, too: Breeding Land Hermit Crabs, Transitional tank starts at page 5.

Ok I read it but is the phytoplankton really necessary? I find that clouds the water a lot! And do I need to clean out any uneaten frozen Mysis/Krilll, or can I just leave the food until it's all eaten?

Kuza, I got a big bag of 1mm shells for crafting, but I'd be happy to send them your way if they'd help I can grab some pictures if you want

oh really? are they only 1 mm or 1-2 mm? I would love pictures and to somehow buy some from you.

I would clean out the uneaten food after a given time period as it will start to foul the water. However, you should start to get a feel for how much they are eating at a time (maybe try measuring it out each time). If they finish too quickly (they probably have a an average time period where they feed ravenously and then slow down you want to aim to have just a very small amount of food left at that point rather than being completely done before then) you probably didn't feed quite enough but if there's a lot left you should feed less the next time.

the issue is I have to put in a good amount because if there's only a small about they all get too close and end up fighting/eating each other instead. So I have to spread the food around the tank

kuza wrote:Ok I read it but is the phytoplankton really necessary? I find that clouds the water a lot! And do I need to clean out any uneaten frozen Mysis/Krilll, or can I just leave the food until it's all eaten?

We both cleaned out the uneaten food. Makes the water quality much better.
I didn't used phytoplankton at that stage, Curlz did. Sry, I can't say if it's really necessary or not.

ok thanks again. It's hard to clean out the food with sand at the bottom! ugh!

kuza wrote:ok thanks again. It's hard to clean out the food with sand at the bottom! ugh!

Sand in a fish tank is cleaned by using a very small circular motion with the siphon wand - that lifts the debris off the surface and frees any that might be trapped by sand grains. I'm not sure what it's like with the megalopa down there but could you do something similar with a turkey baster? It takes a little while to get the hang of it, but once you do it's faster and easier than cleaning gravel.

I simply sucked off all, sand and dirt. Not all sand, just what got into the tube. Then I cleaned the sand and put it back.

I feel like I"m losing a lot more than I should, like I think a bunch have died in just 2 days but it's hard to tell because they seem to "rest" sometimes. But how can I tell if there's something wrong in the tank?

Do you have sand in the megalopa jars? Or are they in the transition tank?

I have a betta fish tank I'm using, with sand, which they do love to grab. And I can't tell how many are dead because they are also on the ground resting/eating. But the water isn't very clear so it's hard to tell, but this morning a lot were swimming at the surface of the water and now only a few are,t he rest are at the bottom looking sick.

This is the tank I have all the megalopa in now.



Maybe I should have cleaned up the food from yesterday more? I do 50% water changes at least twice a day, so the water must be good, right?