HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I thought that I had been smelling copper in our tap water these past few days, especially when running the shower, there was a very noticeable smell of metal in the water stream. I was a bit concerned because that very night that I had noticed it I had just finishing changing the pools in my crabitat, which the freshwater was the tap water.

Well, out of my caution I decided to shut down the freshwater and change it to RO water for now until I confirm we don't have metal in the water. I heard that copper can cause early death in inverts? I saw one of my crabs climbing up to the edge of the pool, should I be worried?

opinions vary. Be cafeful.

Copper and Copper Sulfate Debate: search.php?keywords=Copper&t=62686&sf=msgonly

Better to be safe than sorry and avoid it...

Shrimp need copper sulfate, so that is why a lot of the hermit crab foods contain that ingredient. However, as a hermit crab group, we DO NOT believe that it is a safe ingredient for them. We also don't believe that copper is safe for them.

GotButterflies wrote:Better to be safe than sorry and avoid it...

Shrimp need copper sulfate, so that is why a lot of the hermit crab foods contain that ingredient. However, as a hermit crab group, we DO NOT believe that it is a safe ingredient for them. We also don't believe that copper is safe for them.

And on the flip side, many shrimp keepers also fear copper sulfate and try to avoid feeding them to their shrimp. (Quite q debate about it by some shrimpers!)

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Thanks everyone! I ended up using RO water like I said I was going to, and I am not noticing a metallic smell in the water any more either

The metallic smell is more likely to be iron which naturally occurs in well water. High copper levels is a rare occurrence in drinking water as it's not very disolvable, which is why it's used for water lines.

wodesorel wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 17, 2019 1:37 pm

The metallic smell is more likely to be iron which naturally occurs in well water. High copper levels is a rare occurrence in drinking water as it's not very disolvable, which is why it's used for water lines.

Thanks for the helpful information, the water no longer smells like metal as I was describing. I don't have prime on hand, and I am using a dechlorinator that doesn't state to remove heavy metals and it says that it does not cover ammonia either. I know this isn't the best, and I look forward to switching back onto prime.

I used to use prime all the time, but it's a bit pricey which is why I never stocked up on it, so whenever I ran out I never replaced it.