Wednesday, 24. April 2013, 13:44
Hello everyone,
I'm having a few problems with my Geosesarma Bicolor. One by one they're slowly dying and I can't seem to understand why. Since they're my first crabs I hoping I did everything right so far, but could use some input from more experienced people.
I bought my first 5 Geosesarma Bicolors the first weekend of December last year. Two male, 3 female, about 2,5 cm big. One of the females died the next day, which was sad, but I figured that was due stress of traveling (she was pregnant aswell).
I set them up in my tank (60x60x56), which is an old aquarium from my dad. The soil is plantation soil from exoterra with frog moss on top. I put in some plants, all clean, and some wood to create hidingspots.
Underneat is a heating pad that warms the terrarium during the day. It also creates a warm spot and a cool spot to sit. Daytime warmspot is 27C, the coolspot 24C. At night temperture drops to 23C at the warmspot and 20C at the coldspot. Air temperature is the same as the coldspot temperature. The water doesn't heat up or cool down as quick so is about 22-23C al the time. Humidity is around 80% all day.
I feed my crabs mostly living foods; mosquito larvies, fruitflies and Daphnia. I also feed frozen Daphnia and krill. They also got some fishflakes, but they never ate any of it.
They seemed to be very happy, eating very well, but Chrismas day one of the females sat in the waterbowl for hours. I figured she was molting, but nothing happend and the next day she died in the waterbowl.
The others seemed fine so I didn't worry yet. The last female molded succesfully about 2 weeks later. And I carried on doing what I did.
Then in the beginning of February my big male died. I found him one morning, next to the waterbowl. He seemed ok the day before. Since I started to worry now, I reread some articles about my crabs and decided to feed the last two some extra Calcium. I didn't do that before, since the man I bought them from said the didn't need it. So I dusted my fruitflies before feeding and added some powder on the wood in the terrarium so they could eat some extra.
Last week I found my last male dead in the tank, again with no obvious reason why he died. So I'm left with my last female (the only one that did molt).
Again I hit the articles to research anything I missed, but I can't figure it out.
I did read something about adding iodine to the water, but I can't find it anymore. Does anyone here uses it?
I also can't find anything about UV light, do they need it? Because that could be a missing point then.
How often should they molt? I've got the feeling they just need to mold, but can't get it done and die. Am I missing something in the diet then, or is it set up related?
Any help is welcome, I don't want to buy another pair untill I'm sure I'm actually doing it right....
Photo's of my set up (not very good, since I made them with my phone, but you'll get the idea):
The tank is 60x60x58. The waterbowl is 12cm across and 3 cm deep.
I'm having a few problems with my Geosesarma Bicolor. One by one they're slowly dying and I can't seem to understand why. Since they're my first crabs I hoping I did everything right so far, but could use some input from more experienced people.
I bought my first 5 Geosesarma Bicolors the first weekend of December last year. Two male, 3 female, about 2,5 cm big. One of the females died the next day, which was sad, but I figured that was due stress of traveling (she was pregnant aswell).
I set them up in my tank (60x60x56), which is an old aquarium from my dad. The soil is plantation soil from exoterra with frog moss on top. I put in some plants, all clean, and some wood to create hidingspots.
Underneat is a heating pad that warms the terrarium during the day. It also creates a warm spot and a cool spot to sit. Daytime warmspot is 27C, the coolspot 24C. At night temperture drops to 23C at the warmspot and 20C at the coldspot. Air temperature is the same as the coldspot temperature. The water doesn't heat up or cool down as quick so is about 22-23C al the time. Humidity is around 80% all day.
I feed my crabs mostly living foods; mosquito larvies, fruitflies and Daphnia. I also feed frozen Daphnia and krill. They also got some fishflakes, but they never ate any of it.
They seemed to be very happy, eating very well, but Chrismas day one of the females sat in the waterbowl for hours. I figured she was molting, but nothing happend and the next day she died in the waterbowl.
The others seemed fine so I didn't worry yet. The last female molded succesfully about 2 weeks later. And I carried on doing what I did.
Then in the beginning of February my big male died. I found him one morning, next to the waterbowl. He seemed ok the day before. Since I started to worry now, I reread some articles about my crabs and decided to feed the last two some extra Calcium. I didn't do that before, since the man I bought them from said the didn't need it. So I dusted my fruitflies before feeding and added some powder on the wood in the terrarium so they could eat some extra.
Last week I found my last male dead in the tank, again with no obvious reason why he died. So I'm left with my last female (the only one that did molt).
Again I hit the articles to research anything I missed, but I can't figure it out.
I did read something about adding iodine to the water, but I can't find it anymore. Does anyone here uses it?
I also can't find anything about UV light, do they need it? Because that could be a missing point then.
How often should they molt? I've got the feeling they just need to mold, but can't get it done and die. Am I missing something in the diet then, or is it set up related?
Any help is welcome, I don't want to buy another pair untill I'm sure I'm actually doing it right....
Photo's of my set up (not very good, since I made them with my phone, but you'll get the idea):
The tank is 60x60x58. The waterbowl is 12cm across and 3 cm deep.