HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Clear water only at this stage & sounds like you need to up your bubbler

I edited my last post to show the video.

How did you keep your water clear with feeding the megalopa? Maybe I had too many? Did you get all your 34 babies from 1 attempt or was that multiple tries worth of them?

1 attempt.
What i mean by clear water is your sand will be fouling the water & reducing their ability to convert oxygen, they still suffocate even though they dont need the flow as fast. Complete water change would be my advice. I fed 4 - 5 times a day 1 - 2 crumbs per megalopa & sucked up any left overs about an hour after feeding & even then i tried to only suck up poop.
What im trying to say is you are noticing something is not right, time to change it. I split my megalopa over 4 jars hope this helps!

But you had sand in your transition tank, is it any different then my tank right now? And do they molt again at this stage before going on land?

I couldnt see your pic before sorry, i see you got the coarse aquarium variety thats good i thought you had playsand in there. Its going to be a lot of water changes to keep on top of the cloudiness, it can be from the new sand & it can be from food. You might have to do more aggressive water changes. I only used sand when my megalopa were shelled & moved into the transition. Make sure you have a decent current in your betta tank as any still voids will be lethal.

No more molts this is it until they morph into land crab after leaving the water
*sorry for the multiple posts, I was using my mobile app :-/

Are they showing interest in shells yet?

kuza wrote: 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?

If you're having any doubts, get a testing kit! It'll show any spikes in ammonia and show you how well you're keeping up with the water quality: http://www.bigalspets.ca/ammonia-test-k ... water.html

(Or if you wanted to go whole hog: http://www.bigalspets.ca/saltwater-master-test-kit.html )

Dont forget using ammo lock you will still test positive or high even though the toxicity is nuetralised. Dilution is the solution

Nat_addicted to HC's wrote:I couldnt see your pic before sorry, i see you got the coarse aquarium variety thats good i thought you had playsand in there. Its going to be a lot of water changes to keep on top of the cloudiness, it can be from the new sand & it can be from food. You might have to do more aggressive water changes. I only used sand when my megalopa were shelled & moved into the transition. Make sure you have a decent current in your betta tank as any still voids will be lethal.

this is probably the issue. They have no interest in shells yet, but there are void spots I think.

Nat_addicted to HC's wrote:Dont forget using ammo lock you will still test positive or high even though the toxicity is nuetralised. Dilution is the solution

ya this is why I don't test for ammonia, I use ammo lock. I do test for nitrates but it's been pretty good.

So it's not as bad as I thought it was going to be, I still have a couple dozen (24-36) still alive, they just like to hang around the bottom. No matter how much food I put in they still eat each other. In the jars, in the betta tank, no matter where they are, so the only way to prevent that would be to put them in individual jars, which would be tough. Even when i had 3 jars going they were eating each other so I'm not sure what else to do.

I either need bigger jars still, or 2 smaller betta tank. I don't know, I think I'm just going to bite the bullet and build a home made kreisel tank and try that cause it's impossible to find the right jars here.

And I can't find that food nat has anywhere, it seems to only be sold by a store in NZ/Australia.

I know that it makes cleaning tougher but have you considered trying or has anyone else tried providing "bushy" plastic plants (it could be weighted to lay down on its side rather than standing up in the water) or other decorations that would provide hiding spaces? This is a strategy used by fish breeders to not only protect small fry from adult fish but to keep losses down when raising fry that are more predatory or aggressive in nature.

I bought some that stick to the bottom of the tank, I may try those.

I am not even close to knowing enough about all this to offer much advice but as a salt water reef keeper I wonder if some small frags of live rock would allow some hiding spots for these little guys? It's also a natural filter and would add beneficial organisms to the water. My only concern would be hitch hikers in the rock.