I have a 5 gallon saltwater setup for inverts only. The water was a little stagnant, so I put in a bubble stone, but really it's this piece of wood that creates bubbles. Anyway, since I put it in, my little blueleg hermit crabs and a red colored hermit crab are like addicted to the bubbles. It's kind of weird. They go and sit on the rock ledge where the bubbles are coming up, and just sit there! The bubbles build up all over them and it's quite hilarious. This morning I noticed that the red hermit crab was being eaten by my cleaner shrimp. I wonder if the bubbles killed him? Is it possible to be "overoxygenated"?? Even inverts?
2007-10-15 06:12:14 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Pets ➔ Fish
It may have just swallowed more than he could handle is the way it sounds. Is the bubble rock on a timer to go off instead of being on 24 h a day? If not maybe you should look into it. The crabs are getting entertained w/ it , but if they`re trying to swallow the bubbles it could be a hazard to their health cause the bubbles could put more oxygen in their lungs or whatever than their supposed to natrually have.
2007-10-15 06:25:24 · answer #1 · answered by ♥MeMeAnn♥ 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Do you have a filter on this tank? That shouldn't have allowed the water to become stagnant. The movement of the water out of the filter also oxygenates the water and circulates the oxygenated water throughout the tank.
If you didn't have a filter, that's why your crabs were attracted to the bubbles - that was the source of the most oxygenated water in their tank.
I'd think the most likely cause of death for the hermit was too little oxygen in the water (especially if it spent most of it's time at the bottom of the tank and the airstone was the only source of water movement) or lack of a replacement shells - saltwater hermits are just like the land hermits you can buy for pets in that they need to change shells as they grow. Either the red leg didn't have a larger one to move into as it grew and was attacked by the shrimp/another hermit as it was leaving the shell because it had outgrown it, or one of the blue legs needed a larger shell and killed the red leg for his.
2007-10-15 13:37:49 · answer #2 · answered by copperhead 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
take the bobble stone out and put in a Small powerhead.
2007-10-15 15:57:38 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋