patchouliii wrote:Careyenz and Kuza, how long do H. Miles last in your tat? How often, do you replenish the pred. mites. I know this has been answered before but I never really paid attention since I never considered it.
I've done them 3 times now so I have lots of cool information on them. In my tank they seem to last 3 to 5 weeks as far as i can tell. in the numbers required to really clean up the crab mites anyway.
The females are large and you can clearly see them waving around some feeler type legs in front of their heads and they are more of an opaque tan color. You can clearly see them by the nakid eye, you don't need a magnifying glass. The males are really tiny and white and you can barely see their legs but you can still see them without a magnifying glass against the black rim of the tank but in the sand or moss they are tough to find. They are more the size of the tiny white mites I had on my crabs.
The females don't seem to go outside the tank much, but I do see them crawling around under the top glass in the moist areas. The Males I find on the rim of the tank all the time. I just open the lid and blow them back in or let them be. They don't bug me because I put them in there and I know they are good for the crabs. the ones that do get out I hope clean up my house mites a bit, we all have them
What I do know is they seem to work 100% for any crabs on the surface as long as they are up and about for a week. I had a real mite infestation on a few crabs 2 months ago and now I can't see a single crab mite. BUT... and this is a huge but... The reason I've done 3 cycles is because a molter always goes down right before the preds arrive or just right after but too soon, and then come up 4-5 weeks later and re infect the whole tank.
So this second time I did 2 cycles a month apart to try to get them all. I may even have a new order ready for when Rudy and Ruby come up because I'm not sure if they have mites since they stay down for so long.
So if you buy new crabs, and have an ISO where they can't fully bury themselves, then having them for a couple weeks with a liter of predatory mites should clear up any wild mites you have. You can also use half in the ISO and put half in your main tank and when you transfer them in 2 weeks there will still be some super hungry pred mites in the main tank for a just in case.
In fact, if I spend a lot of money from crabs from LHC.com I would get preds ordered ready for when they arrive. Then iso the crabs with the preds for 3 weeks then put them in the main tank. Then if any molters go down right away, wait 2-3 weeks and order another round of preds to use in your main tank for when those first molters come up. They could have had mites hiding under the gills, etc..
I got a lightening response from her right away. That's a good thing right :roll: 
so, I'm a teeny bit excited BUT creeped out from possible mites. I'm praying they are mite free 
when I get them since I ordered in August and they would have been bathing for a while (I know she bathes them). Here's hoping...
That's not going to be an easy thing do to.
. In the past, she gave no warnings and members had no idea what was coming their way. At one time, a member added the LHC "mite infested" crabs into her tank since she had bathed them and all was clear, and in a matter of weeks the crab mites infested the tank, sickened the LHC crabs and unfortunately killed her original crabs as well that she had had for years. 
. She says it's very lucrative 
and that's why she does it 
