Atypical mite case

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 3:32 pm

Hi, I'm new. I am a big fan of hermit crabs and have recently started my own tank. I bought three ecuadorians which were originally going to go into a large community tank that my boyfriend has. Before doing so, we quarenteened them in a smaller temporary tank. They all seemed very healthy, but after about three days, the largest one died. He had been very active right up to the time of his death. When cleaning out the tank and disposing of him, we noticed an orange mite in his shell. This is the second time I have seen one of these mites. The last one was on another ecuadorian that we had that died. We had that crab living in the community tank for several months. It seemed like he was getting ready to molt so we put him in a smaller molting tank. He promptly molted, but at some point in the molt he died. It was really upsetting. Between the two of us, we have a lot of crabs, 15 or so. The only crabs we have had die in the year or so that we have been keeping them were two that died several days after purchasing them and this one during molting. I have seen these mites on my other two ecuadorians and I have not been able to get rid of them by bathing. These mites are very adept at holding onto the crab and seem capable of surviving under water for some time. These two ecuadorians have been very active, one has gone through a molt and I think the other is readying to go through a molt now, so I think they are doing fairly well.

Has anyone seen these mites before? I have looked around online and can only find information about these larger orange mites. Could these mites have caused the death of our two hermits? Right now the two seemingly infected crabs are in a tank that is a little too small for them. I am currently readying a larger one for them. When I move them, I want to get a third ecuadorian to keep with them so that when one molts the other doesn't get lonely, but I do not want to bring a new crab into a potentially hazardess environment. If anyone had any advice or tips, I would really appreciate it. I love my crabs and I want them to live long healthy lives.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 4:34 pm

They could very well be the cause of the deaths. Could you get a picture of them?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 5:52 pm

I don't think I can get a picture. These mites hide way back in the shells and only once in a blue moon do I see them on the bodies of the crabs. When I do see them, they usually crawl to the back of the shell pretty fast. I have tried to knock them off of the crabs with my finger, but have been unsuccessful.

I just took out my smaller crab to see if I could find anything to photograph as the bigger one is buried right now, but I couldn't find anything. He does smell a little funky though. You can't smell it unless you put your nose right up to him and sniff. I've never sniffed a crab before so I don't know if thats normal, but I'm kinda worried. The tank seems clean to me. I scoop out poop and uneaten food almost everynight. It certainly doesn't smell or anything.

Sorry for being so wordy, I'm just worried and hoping that if I give enough information someone may be able to help.

Gorthaur · Post by **Gorthaur** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 6:08 pm

Have you left any fresh food in the tank for more than a day? Meat, in particular, seems to attract all types of mites that could spread onto the crabs. Unfortunately, sometimes mites cannot be eradicated. I hope your new Es will be rid of these pests with regular salt water baths.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Jun 27, 2005 6:26 pm

No, I defintely have not been leaving any fresh food out. I do have Jurassi Diet hermit crab food available at all times to them. Its a dry pellet type of food. I change their food at least every other day and I make sure to scoop out any that they knock around. Is this ok or should I change the food everyday or only keep it available at night? I give them weekly baths, but I have been doing it with fresh water. They do of course have saltwater available to them at all times. To keep humidity up, I spray the tank with freshwater. Should I be spraying with salt instead? So I should be doing salt baths instead of fresh?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 7:18 am

i suggest getting a food dish with sides so your have less of a chance of knocking food out that u dont see...give your es some salt water baths instead of fresh water baths...the salt may kill the mites...or if possible, make the crabitat at high humidty, as high as you can get it without going above the recomended parcent, this may suffocate the mites...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 3:39 pm

This article explains the best way I ever found to get rid of mites:

http://www.crabstreetjournal.com/module ... =0&thold=0

Gorthaur · Post by **Gorthaur** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 6:49 pm

lykospira wrote:No, I defintely have not been leaving any fresh food out. I do have Jurassi Diet hermit crab food available at all times to them. Its a dry pellet type of food. I change their food at least every other day and I make sure to scoop out any that they knock around. Is this ok or should I change the food everyday or only keep it available at night? I give them weekly baths, but I have been doing it with fresh water. They do of course have saltwater available to them at all times. To keep humidity up, I spray the tank with freshwater. Should I be spraying with salt instead? So I should be doing salt baths instead of fresh?

I change my crabs' food daily and keep it available at all times. I have found that using larger dishes keeps any food from getting knocked onto the substrate. From what you described, I don't think food has any relation to your mite problems.

Full-strength saltwater baths seem to be more effective at eliminating mites than freshwater baths. I bathe my crabs once a month in 40% salt/60% freshwater, so that the shell water salinity is not disrupted (a cause of stress), but you should use 100% saltwater for baths on mite- infected crabs. Spraying the tank with saltwater will probably not have any noticeable effect. Continue to spray with freshwater.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 6:56 pm

Hmm, I'd pn;y use the q tip to clean theshell, VERY CAREFULLY.

Try not to stress them wit hthe bath too terribly much. You could try using a syringe to gently flush out the shell (while the crab is not tucked in there! He might drown.)

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Jun 28, 2005 8:09 pm

Julia_Crab wrote:This article explains the best way I ever found to get rid of mites:

http://www.crabstreetjournal.com/module ... =0&thold=0

I just read that article and I found it to be very interesting. The harmful mites the author described seems to fit the description of the mites I have. The only difference is that the author had a lot of mites. I have never seen more than one mite on a crab at any given time. In fact it has been a few weeks since I have actually seen a mite. The only times I have gotten a good look at them is when the earlier two crabs I had died. The mites were found while disposing the bodies.

I wish I could find more information on this orange mite in particular. I don't know why I rarely see the mites. If I haven't seen them in a long time, are they even still there? I don't want to do anything to overstress the crabs if I'm not even sure if these mites have persisted until now. I would rather identify what these parasites are and what they are doing before I implement any removal techniques such as predatory mites. The artical says that the predatory mites eat the pupae of the parastic mites, but I'm not even sure if the parasitic mites are breeding as I haven't seen any in a long time, and have never found more than one mite per crab.

I gave them their weekly bath last night and used saltwater instead this time, but I did not see any mites. The crabbies seemed active and healthy.

If anyone hears anything about orange mites, please send it my way. Thank you all for the help.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 8:32 am

Actually, I wrote that article. Kali_Ma and Julia Crab are the same person.

Mites, no matter what the species, live a very short time, about 30 days, more or less. If you still have mites, they ARE breeding, but may be doing so slowly. Their lifecycle depends very much on heat and humidity. For instance spider mites, a plant pest, when at optimal warmth and humidity, will do their entire lifecycle (hatching from eggs to producing more eggs) in about 7 days.

I sent samples of the red mites to Dr. Williams at Hofstra for analysis and he hasn't replied yet. I guess it's time for me to email and ask him what's up with those parasites...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 9:15 am

could it be that it is about to molt and its eating its exoskeleton and eating it to?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 11:25 am

Julia_Crab wrote:Actually, I wrote that article. Kali_Ma and Julia Crab are the same person.
I sent samples of the red mites to Dr. Williams at Hofstra for analysis and he hasn't replied yet. I guess it's time for me to email and ask him what's up with those parasites...

When and if you do, would you mind sharing the information with me? At this point before I do anything, I think it would be best to determine if the mites are still present. I have inspected my crabs at length, but haven't been able to see anything. Is there a good way to tell if they are still there? If they are, I will seriously consider these predatory mites. I just want my crabbies to be safe. Sorry, I've just been so worried about the whole thing. Once again, I really appreciate all the help.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 11:57 am

i'm pretty sure it was Julia_Crab that gave me this advice to get rid of the mites and it worked first time. (and thank you! cos it did work!

)

make a double concentration of salt water (2x what the package tells you to put in it), and bathe them in it, then i iso'ed each crab (separately), and kept them in iso for 3 or 4 days to make sure no more mites were present.

then i threw out all the sand in their tank, and cleaned it and everything else in the tank with the 2x salt water and vinegar diluted with water. just kept cleaning (inside and out) with x2 salt water until it didn't smell like vingear anymore. then i let the tank air out for a day or two, as well as all their toys.

i haven't had any more mites in the tank since then. also, i'm not sure who is able to get the Q-tip thing to work, but i guess it didn't work out so good for me, since my crab that had the mites the worst is not people-friendly, so handling him a lot is not a good idea for you or the crab. hope you get the situation cleared up.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jun 29, 2005 3:09 pm

That's not my advice, but thanks for the kudoes anyway!