Cobweb looking stuff and hermit crabs dying???!

[kraken]

So just today i noticed this cobweb looking stuff waving about in my tank, its behind my rock formation so i cant get a picture of it. Looks like a clear white filmy cobweb clinging to my live rock. I read it could be a sponge growing? Orrr????

On another note, my hermit crabs have been slowly dying off. Parameters are nothing to worry about. I checked everything too. its a very slow die off as well. The last one was a month ago, and the other just today. Maybe im overreacting over two hermes just dying. Maybe its just coincidence. What do you all think??

 

[ddelozier]

need more info than "parameters are fine". Have you checked ammonia? have you checked Nitrite/nitrate/phosphate. Has the tank been treated with any medication, specifically anything with copper...ever? Have you added anything to the tank recently? new filtration, new rock, new Anything. Hermits sometimes die, but what you may be seeing isnt a dead hermit, but rather their skin. They shed their skin periodically as they grow. The shed looks liks very much like a hermit carcase.

Stringy stuff is most likely snails or barnicals. They emit a long strand of mucus that drifts with the current. They drag it in periodically to eat whatever might have stuck to the string. they are usually nothing to worry about unless the strings are irritating your corals. then manually remove the strings, and the snails if possible.

 

[FishOuttaWater]

Remove the snails producing the web immediately. They will hurt corals. We had one kill a torch coral and even put some zoas into a submission hold until I removed them. The zoas still haven't recovered. It usually looks like a stick coming off of the rock but may also be a little reddish brown disk on the rock. I use bone cutters to snip them open and pull out the snail. If you have a good wrasse you can just cut the shell open and the wrasse will take care of it. You can also glue over the opening. That kills them too.


Matt

 

[PSU4ME]

The dying crabs may be growing crabs as they shed their skin when they grow as mentioned above. They call this molting. Another possibility is that you don't have enough food for them..... A tank will naturally find an equilibrium of animals which is dependent on various food sources.

 

[cheeks69]

Vermitid snails most likely throwing out that web to capture food, generally their harmless filter feeders. The only issue with them is if the conditions are right they will reproduce rapidly throughout the tank, there was a time where I had literally hundreds in my tank never bothered anything except for my ph's...LOL

 

[kraken]

My parameters were zeros all but the phosphates with was nothing major either. I wasnt sure if they molted or not, i believe you are right on that did a count today and everyone is still in there. Also are these snails hitchhikers? As ive never introduced any snails myself.

 

[FishOuttaWater]

They probably came in on liverock. They are a hitchhiker.


Matt