Cali Kid Corals

Help! How do I save my horseshoe crab?

M

Mr. Seahorse

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My temp was 80 yesterday so I turned it down by 2 degrees and it went down to 72 in an hour my crab wasn't doing very good so I turned it up a little and it went to 77. Today he is not moving, What do I do??
 
I don’t think there’s much you can do besides keeping things stable now. Those are some quick temp swings. What heater is that? Are you running it on an Inkbird or other controller?
 
If you’re twisting the little knob on the heater itself, those aren’t very accurate. If you’re going to play with temperature I recommend getting a temp controller. Otherwise set and forget at 78ish
 
Horseshoe crabs get big and they need a lot of space and sand. Hopefully you have him in a tank at least 160g larger than your 20g listed.

Also agree you need a real temperature controller like an InkBird to control your heater. You need that anyway to reduce your chances of heater catastrophe, which is probably the top cause of tank crashes.
 
I doubt that temp swing had anything to do with it.. They can withstand that with no issues so maybe coincidence since it's so new.
Any black spots on she'll?
Anything else showing symptoms?
What did you observe the LFS feeding it?
Frozen brine is not sufficient no sustainable for that horseshoe spider that you mentioned was eating on the other thread...toss in some clam/squid/silver side meat for it to boost energy! A small piece of raw chicken will work temporarily..These items should be it's regular diet or it will definitely go downhill. The sponge filter may not be sufficient enough so weekly water changes at minimum.. Should be definitely going after food once it hits the bottom
What are your parameters?
Also a little background would be helpful such as do you make saltwater or buy it?
Do you have an rodi water filter for top offs?
Honestly the LFS who sold you the critter should have recommended another animal based off your setup or just wanted to make a buck! I'd think twice going back..Maybe they were just inexpierenced but a few minute read on Google will give directives...
Best of luck
 
Strongly recommend to do some research (and/or ask us folks here on the forum) before adding any strange critters to your tank. Many, many things are gladly sold that are not good fits for certain types/sizes of tanks (or any tanks at all, sadly). A horseshoe crab is a great example of something best left in the ocean, unless you happen to be a public aquarium.
 
Mr. Seahorse said:
My temp was 80 yesterday so I turned it down by 2 degrees and it went down to 72 in an hour my crab wasn't doing very good so I turned it up a little and it went to 77. Today he is not moving, What do I do??
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Also tank temperatures can have fluctuations through out the day especially without a temperature controller. Air temperature in the room, heater, ac, near a window, sun up/ down, rather it has glass top, screen top, lighting ramp up, peak light and diming period. There are so many varriants than can cause different temperatures to show.

Even with my inkbirds it shows my temperature shifts by 1-2 points at various times of the day.

Playing with the nob on a glass thermometer the average one any was is always a gamble and takes a while to get it properly dialed in. A controller makes it much easier.

What are you using to check the tanks temperature by the way not sure if you mentioned it or it was asked? Some methods of taking temperature aren't all that accurate to begin with. Nor would I suggest adjusting your temperatures based on some. A example would be the glass stickers with numbers. Good at showing you if something is crazy wrong, so you can check the temperature with something else. Yet I wouldn't do anything based off the little glass sticker thermometers.
 
MichaelB said:
Even with my inkbirds it shows my temperature shifts by 1-2 points at various times of the day.
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Is your temp really shifting that much? Do you have your low and high end set within 0.5F degrees and your heaters can’t keep up or are you allowing it to shift that much on purpose?
 
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