Many lost limbs on one side from unsuccessful molt

[Lephantome92]

Due to a mixture of possible bad care from me, moving, and interactions with the other crabs, my surface molter straw seems to have lost many of the limbs on her left side, i think including possibly her big claw. This may explain why she hasn't eaten all of her old exo. I know crabs are resilient and she will regrow them with the next molt, but will she likely need special nurturing if all the love of that side fell off? I think she still has at least one leg stuck in the old exo still attached if that makes any difference

Edit: I just checked, and the limb I found by her wasn't empty. Do i just wait till it begins to smell to toss it? Also, with having the one leg still attached, should i help her out of it or let her do it alone and risk losing it? I really want her to be reasonable self-sufficient if possible

[aussieJJDude]

If she cant eat or move well, then i would make sure she stays hydrated and given foods that doesnt require energy to break apart.
I would leave the limb with her, she will gain lost nutrients from both the exo and the inner parts. If it does start to rot or smell bad then i would then toss it. And no, helping her to moult is probably going to be more stressful than what she is currently in. I would leave her to do her thing.

If your on the computer, i would try using the search function to look up attacked straw, which had a similar experience to you. She cared it back to health, allowed it to moult (which was pretty much straight away) and it managed to regrow and survive.

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[C_fiesta]

Check this out http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... hp?t=92528

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[Lephantome92]

Alas, but unless just limbs can stink up a tank, I believe I am now down a hermit crab I'll know more definitively in the morning (or would mourning be more fitting?). This was not for lack of trying! Just lack of experience, and great stress for a molt. I will be extra diligent in wringing out extra water so I don't have a similar issue in the future

Edit: this post was made before i thoroughly checked everything out. She's alive! It was just the combination of her former limbs, safe pellets, and shrimp that stank something nasty. Anybody that went through this have advice on encouraging them to drink? I'll set her in each pool and she just sits. Also, is it fine to feed blackstrap molasses on a q-tip if she eats, or stick with honey?

[PinchersAndShells]

I'm unsure of the molasses, but I do know peanut butter (no salt, no preservatives) would be a good idea too. Gives them some protein. I've read that some people set their injured crab in the pool for a little bit, or set a bottle cap with FW or MSW in it under them for a drink. Their little mouth parts seem to be more capable of reaching than I'd assume.

[GotButterflies]

I'm so glad she is still alive! There definitely was a great thread on here were a hermit crab lost a lot of limbs, and the crabber fed her using q-tips stuck in the sand.

I would provide organic raw honey for energy, lots of protein and calcium. Maybe you could grind up her exoskeleton if she doesn't eat it all so it is easier for her to eat.

Good luck!

[Lephantome92]

The fun bit is gonna be increasing the sub inch by inch while tending for her and being aware of crabs who are either molting or likely destressing. Do i just soak the end of the q tip in honey and sick the dry end in the sub, or actually feed it to her?

[Hermias_mom]

The fun bit is gonna be increasing the sub inch by inch while tending for her and being aware of crabs who are either molting or likely destressing. Do i just soak the end of the q tip in honey and sick the dry end in the sub, or actually feed it to her?

Either one, as long as the crab can reach it and get to it. There's at least one thread on here where one member nursed his crab back to health, hand feeding it after it lost all of its legs, and the crab came to trust him and would come over and greet him every time he came to the tat, even after it had successfully molted and was all better. Handfeeding is an investment of time and love, but I always thought it would be cool to have a crab who was happy to see me and not afraid of me handling it.

Do you have your crab isolated within your main tank? In like a critter keeper sitting in the main tank, or a soda bottle buried in the sub within the main tank? Messing about with the sub around your injured crab while she's trying to finish her molt/recover and trying to molt again, is probably not the best thing to do, in my opinion. But then, I don't know your exact situation...

[Lephantome92]

This is like day 4 of things going south for her noticeably. I don't have much sub because most of it was flooded and discarded when i moved. She then went into a surface molt, but had a bottle. If she lost the legs the same day as the molt, then she lost them 7-31, more or less, but i only noticed something was amiss on Sunday. Now that i have a better assessment of the situation, she's isolated within the tank by a broken pot with the opening against the wall so no crabs can get in.

[Hermias_mom]

This is like day 4 of things going south for her noticeably. I don't have much sub because most of it was flooded and discarded when i moved. She then went into a surface molt, but had a bottle. If she lost the legs the same day as the molt, then she lost them 7-31, more or less, but i only noticed something was amiss on Sunday. Now that i have a better assessment of the situation, she's isolated within the tank by a broken pot with the opening against the wall so no crabs can get in.

Sounds like you're doing the best you can for her. Darkness and isolation is good. If she were my crab, I'd try to leave her alone as much as possible. Bottle tops or qtips buried in the sub are good ways to go. When they're actually molting, they don't really need to eat. When they're injured, they need to eat. Sounds to me like this is an interrupted/difficult molt for her rather than an injury. If she were my crab, I'd put in bottletops of honey, coconut oil, water, and then leave her be as much as possible, maybe check on her every 2 days when you change out the water. She won't need food until she's done molting. Maybe also put some damp moss in there if you think that might help - it's good to increase moisture (good for molting), and it's a sort-of shelf-stable food source. Crossing my fingers for you and wishing her the best of luck!!!

[Lephantome92]

When i checked on her this morning, she was being really still, so that's worrying, but then Bro had just surface molted, and Dwebble was going after his shell! There were never even signs he was ready to molt! Blech, the brats were more cooperative before the move.

[C_fiesta]

When i checked on her this morning, she was being really still, so that's worrying, but then Bro had just surface molted, and Dwebble was going after his shell! There were never even signs he was ready to molt! Blech, the brats were more cooperative before the move.

Hey, I saw that another one of your crabs has surfaced molted. You should know this isn't normal behavior and your tank conditions should be addressed right away. Have you filled out an emergency template yet? I searched your posts but couldn't find enough information on your tank to really help.

Also, the surface molters need to be separated from everyone else if you haven't already done so.

When you moved your tank did you keep or remove the crabs from the tank? Did you keep the substrate or remove it? If they were down and you left the sub and moved it, the tunnels could have collapsed leaving you with suffocating crabs.

You said in another post that your sub stinks like rotten eggs. That's probably methane gas and needs to be addressed immediately. Have you had a chance to change out your sub yet?

I'm sorry if I'm coming off as agressive, I'm not trying to be. I think because your posts are a little all over the place with bits of information in each, it's hard to see the whole picture maybe that's why you haven't had many responses. Again, I suggest filling out the emergency template so we can get a fuller picture as what you're experiencing isn't normal and we can do our best to help you.

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[Lephantome92]

I'm sad to say that poor diminished Ann has gone to crabby Heaven :'( Dwebble, however went back in his shell and is currently laying on his back, but hasn't touched his exo much


To (hopefully) make things easier, I'll do the classic answer in a quote in red

Hey, I saw that another one of your crabs has surfaced molted. You should know this isn't normal behavior and your tank conditions should be addressed right away. This I understand. I believe it's from the stress of moving, as they were fine at my previous house, but now that I've been at the new house, these issues have arrived. Have you filled out an emergency template yet? Not since the first issue I had because I rectified everything on that in one way or another. I searched your posts but couldn't find enough information on your tank to really help.

Also, the surface molters need to be separated from everyone else if you haven't already done so. I don't have a tank that I can heat and keep the humidity right, so it's soda bottles for me. However, once I can get a ride to the pet store, I'm investing in a small KK.
Yay being 24 and not being able to drive!

When you moved your tank did you keep or remove the crabs from the tank? I carefully removed using the side-to-side method. Other than Ann having cloudy eyes, none showed molting signs. Did you keep the substrate or remove it? I kept the first inch or two so they wouldn't get jostled as much during the drive. If they were down and you left the sub and moved it, the tunnels could have collapsed leaving you with suffocating crabs.

You said in another post that your sub stinks like rotten eggs. That's probably methane gas and needs to be addressed immediately. Have you had a chance to change out your sub yet? I noticed that the day I was starting to move. The first few inches were fine, but once I smelled the methane, I abandoned all hope of saving sub and threw it in the garden once all crabs were accounted for. The store apparently didn't have any bricks of EE, just bags, so from day 1 till day 10, they just had the 2 old inches plus the inch or two from the bag.
However, last night I properly filled their tank w/ some expanded bricks from online, yet Dwebble still chose to molt on the surface.

I'm sorry if I'm coming off as agressive, I'm not trying to be. I think because your posts are a little all over the place with bits of information in each, it's hard to see the whole picture maybe that's why you haven't had many responses. Again, I suggest filling out the emergency template so we can get a fuller picture as what you're experiencing isn't normal and we can do our best to help you. I mean, to some you may come off as aggressive, but since I know you're just trying to get the full picture, I know you're just being inquisitive.

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And because my life just needs to be more interesting, for some reason the tank smells of chemicals. It's not like dead crab, but it also isn't rotten eggs. I basically filled the sub last night, so everything is fresh, including the food. I sniffed the bloodworms, but they don't smell the same

[Hermias_mom]

So sorry to hear about Ann! How very sad!

Good luck with Dweeble. Hope he makes it!

Chemical smells are not fun.

[Lephantome92]

The fun bit of the smell is i can't really describe it to better help literally anyone. I removed what looked like a blob of poo, but that hasn't helped the smell yet