Horseshoe Crab & Pencil Urchin

[dkonni]

I have a small horseshoe crab and 2 pencil Urchin's in my 55 gal.

For the past few days I've notice my horseshoe crab laying upside down in the sand. I thought it had died for some unexplained reason but I went and budged it with my net and it moved out of the way. Is it possible it's molting? Today it is still lying upside down on the sand.

The pencil urchin lost a Needle in the imddle of my tank. I don't think it's shedding more than one, but it looks like it could have gotten stuck on a rock or something. Is this something I should be concerned about, or if it has fallen off naturallly, what could that mean?


My RO water I've been using tests normal so I don't know what to think, or am I just worrying too much.

 

[Smitty]

sounds about normal...they are sometimes upside down at my lfs...just as a precaution, you should check your nitrate level...nitrates usually hurt inverts and make them fall apart and stuff.

 

[yote]

+1 Smitty
Also,its normal for urchins to loose spines.I have no idea why they do,but mines used to drop spines all over the tank.

 

[dcantucson]

My Horseshoe crabs sometime swim upside down across the top of the tank. They are just weird acting sometimes.

 

[sen5241b]

Horseshoes really need lost of sand to sift and a 100 G. You might want to think about some sort of supplemental food for them.

I've spent almost every summer of my life on the beach in Delaware where there are more horseshoes than anywhere else in the world. If you grab them by their tails it will injure or kill them. Their blue blood is copper based unlike human's red, iron-based blood.

 

[Melosu58]

I agree that a bigger tank is needed and more sand space is needed. They sometimes get rid of the fauna in the sandbed and starve to death in smaller tanks.