Arrow crab legs fell off!?!?!

[boogsawaste]

Well I had to remove my cc starfish from my tank because he got too large. I also returned my mandarin (didn't want to starve him because not enough pods yet), so I tried an arrow crab. I had him since sunday and he looked ok up through last night. This morning when I turned on the lights he is missing 6 of his legs! He still has his pincers and 2 front legs on either side but all the rest are sitting right next to him (so obviously not eaten). He is still alive but what happened? I've never kept arrow crabs before so this is new to me.

[Bifferwine]

Poor water quality can cause inverts to literally fall apart. I've seen it happen with starfish too. What are your parameters looking like?

[dustin_P74]

it might have lost them in a molt

[daugherty]

what other fish do you have? any shrimp? my shrimp killed my arrow crab. or water quality issues

[boogsawaste]

S/G is 1.024, ph is 8.2, nitrites are <.03 mg/l, ammonia is zero. I can also test carbonate hardness and CO2 later tonight. The ONLY things in the tank are an o. clown and the crab. There are however all kinds of hitchhikers on my live rock. These weird looking snails that are a little bigger than my thumbnail and move very fast when the light is on. Some possible bristleworms and some weird worms that only partially stretch out of the rock at night and bury their faces in the gravel. I'm kind of afraid to get another crab because of what happened to this guy

[yote]

How was the crab acclimated?

[boogsawaste]

Oh, I just noticed that my temp is 80! Could this have caused it? I have no idea how it is so hot as room temp is 75 and I have the lights off most of the day.

[daugherty]

Originally Posted by boogsawaste

nitrites are <.03 mg/l,

that could very well be the reason

[boogsawaste]

Originally Posted by daugherty

that could very well be the reason

That's the lowest range on the scale of my tetratest laborett. There is no "0" scale on there.

And how I acclimated him. I floated him for about 10 minutes (maybe 15). Next I dumped some of his water and added some of mine (while he was still floating) for another 10. Then I placed him in the tank. Should I have done it different?

[daugherty]

inverts should be acclimated longer than that they take longer than fish and even fish i would do for at least 45 min.