Hermit Crabs

[tebriel]

I've been occasionally finding hermit crabs upside down in their shells, i even found one dead outside his shell. Do they just eventually up and die? I just got a Iodine test kit and mine was pretty much nil so I've been dosing with Kent Marine Tech-I. It's a 1x a week supplement which I've dosed for two weeks now. My test results are as follows:
Iodine: 0.05 (I dosed yesterday)
Salinity: 1.024
Temp: 83.3F (just got in new parts for the chiller in the mail yesterday. Temp probe and/or the controller was broken. Lowering by 2 Degrees every day)
Nitrate: Undetectable by API kit
Phosphate: Undetectable by API kit
Calcium: 400 mg/L
Carbonate Hardness: 9 dKH

This was happening before my chiller died on Wednesday, not all at once, just one at a time. Is this just nature taking its course? Only things dying are blue legged hermits. I figure if I see one or two, then more are dying that I don't see. I got these guys about 8-10 months ago from GARF. Corals are still showing growth and fish are acting normal. But since inverts are first to go, I wanted to make sure this wasn't a harbinger of destruction to come.

 

[michaelf1478]

do you have anything that might be eating them i noticed the same thing in my tank once the noticed the one of my yans like to grab the shells carry them up to the top the drop them. so i figured thats what it was i chould be wrong though

 

[tebriel]

nah, i have 2 pajama cardinals, 1 damsel, and 1 clown, they stay in the middle, don't usually go to the bottom

 

[michaelf1478]

well thats not the problem

 

[tebriel]

well i guess we just ruled one thing out

 

[michaelf1478]

where is Decatur at?

 

[tebriel]

East of Downtown Atl but still inside 285

 

[michaelf1478]

ohh ok

 

[gwen_o_lyn]

lifespan is about a year or two on some of those hermits, so it just might be their time.

i'd skip the iodine dosing... water changes will keep that in check.

 

[tebriel]

I was just doing regular water changes but when I tested my iodine it was .01 of whatever units you measure (ppm I guess) that's why I started dosing. I'm using reefcrystals salt...