Crab Tank

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jap

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Electrician
I got to tell you all a funny story.
I got called to a Walmart Supercenter for a service call. They indicated that thier Aireator in the crab tank was out and the crabs were dying.
I drove up and went in and sure enought 15 or 20 crabs on the bottom of the tank full of water with little or no movement at all. I thought they were dead.
I opened up the bottom of the aquarium and noticed that there were some controls and a duplex receptacle in a handy box mounted in the bottom of the tank housing.The top half of the receptacle was labeled compressor and the bottom was labeled aireator.The receptacle for the compressor was switched off of a thermostat located in the tank, the aireator was hot all the time.What happened is when they moved the tank in they got the cords crossed. Therefore the compressor was running continuously and the Aireator which was now controlled off of the thermostat never came on after the temperature got so low. I lifted the lid on the crab tank and felt of the water, it was freezing cold because the compressor was running continuosly. I switched the cords so they were plugged into the correct outlets and after the water warmed up a little the crabs came back to life. They weren't dead just freezing.I bet them crabs were glad I showed up, they were probably thinking how long will they let this go unnoticed.This came to mind when I seen the other post about the sump pump cords that plug into each other.
 
Reminds me of something that happened to us years ago. We ran a few circuits over to a large saltwater aquarium in an office space. Left on Friday everything was energized. Fish guy came in on Saturday to set up the tank. Got a call Monday morning that all of the fish were dead and that the outlets were dead. Went to investigate and found that someone had plugged all of the equipment into a 15 amp power strip instead of the 3-20 amp circuits we provided. The OCPD within the 15 amp plug strip tripped killing all the power to the tank. They tried to blame it on us until we went there and actually showed them the error.
 
jap said:
I got to tell you all a funny story.
I got called to a Walmart Supercenter for a service call. They indicated that thier Aireator in the crab tank was out and the crabs were dying.
I drove up and went in and sure enought 15 or 20 crabs on the bottom of the tank full of water with little or no movement at all. I thought they were dead.
I opened up the bottom of the aquarium and noticed that there were some controls and a duplex receptacle in a handy box mounted in the bottom of the tank housing.The top half of the receptacle was labeled compressor and the bottom was labeled aireator.The receptacle for the compressor was switched off of a thermostat located in the tank, the aireator was hot all the time.What happened is when they moved the tank in they got the cords crossed. Therefore the compressor was running continuously and the Aireator which was now controlled off of the thermostat never came on after the temperature got so low. I lifted the lid on the crab tank and felt of the water, it was freezing cold because the compressor was running continuosly. I switched the cords so they were plugged into the correct outlets and after the water warmed up a little the crabs came back to life. They weren't dead just freezing.I bet them crabs were glad I showed up, they were probably thinking how long will they let this go unnoticed.This came to mind when I seen the other post about the sump pump cords that plug into each other.
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Great story. Warm crabs are happy crabs,eh?:smile:
 
HighWirey said:
Thank you jap, for rescuing all us old barely holdin' on crabs in the bottom of the tank . . . You got here just-in-time.

Merry Christmas Everyone and Best Wishes
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Well, they won't be so thankful when they are boiling in a a pot in someone's kitchen. Guess who they'll be cussing then huh? :) e/m
 
Crab Tank

Gentlemen,

I know all of your storys are true, and were very serious issues at the time when the boss said "what in the blankety blank did you do out there yesterday". But years later, and in the middle of the night, in retrospect, they are hillarilous . . .

"and sure enought 15 or 20 crabs on the bottom of the tank full of water with little or no movement at all"

"and the crabs were dying"

"all of the fish were dead"

Merry Christmas Everyone and Best Wishes
 
I dunno???? Don't crabs like cold water?!? Maybe I've been watching too much "Deadliest Catch" - ya know 'icey Bearing Sea...' on the 'Watch other people work' Channel. :grin:

They probably needed air.... While I doubt the crabs were 'happy' considering their future as salad, cake, or dip - I am sure you made their last day more comfortable.

They don't have crabs at my Walmart!!! :mad:

Maybe suggest they make the thermostat controlled outlet a twist lock or hard wired. It's bound to happen again.
 
FNCnca said:
They will be overjoyed once they are dipped in melted butter.
No wait... I will be overjoyed to have them dipped in melted butter.
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You haven't had crabs, until you had MARYLAND BLUE CRABS. Although every year the catch is smaller and the price higher, but they are still worth it !! Am I right Marylanders?? e/m.
 
You are right Energy-Miser, thats good eating.

The OP should have said "yep, these crabs are dead all right, want me to dispose of them for you?"
 
Energy-Miser said:
You haven't had crabs, until you had MARYLAND BLUE CRABS. Although every year the catch is smaller and the price higher, but they are still worth it !! Am I right Marylanders?? e/m.
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I had Wi. crabs once and I don't realy care to have them again!:smile:
 
As of late I am constantly exposed to crabs. Crabby engineers, crabbly electricians, crabby bosses.

How those people can make a decision just before Thanksgiving and want everything done by the end of the year is just beyond my limited comprehension.

When you have everyone working 12 hours a day seven days a week, with no type of planning people just seem to get crabby. I keep telling people, that the roof isn't going to collapse if some people don't get what they want when they want it.:)
 
Just read an article on the plane that King crabs have actually really dropped in price due right now to their abundance this year thanks to limiting the catches over the past 2 years.

But still, that is not a Maryland Blue in any shape or form. Boy have they gotten pricey over the years.:mad:
 
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