molting or excintric?
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Guest
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molting or excintric?
I own a single hermit crab due to some hermie losses to stress. He is digging a lot and just yesterday I saw his happy little feelers, unfortunately he dug back down and I can't find him. Most strangest of all was that I replaced the abnormally low salt water last night and woke up to it bone dry. Is Maximo just strange or is he molting? He didn't seem too lethargic and his eyes are fine and his shell isn't dusty colored. My temp is only 75 and humidity is crazy right now for some reason between 60-85. These don't seem like molting conditions and he doesn't show a large majority of molting symptoms. Also, he changed his shell while I was at school and changed back about when I saw him. The shell he changed into was quite large for him (he pulled into the shell and it looked empty.
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Guest
Topic author
What kind of container do you have water in (fresh and sea salt containers, right?)? This has happened once with us, but we feel it was due to container being tipped over by crab or something that was moved into container to force it to tip over. Also, others have said that plants or decorations that hang into bowl, as well as substrate that enters bowl, may act as a wick and drain water from bowl more quickly.
One of our tanks is around 75degr and has been no problem. But do you have a cover with alot of open area? Check out Crab Care FAQ drop down list to right for "Maintaining Humidity".
Some ways that I've used myself or have read about to get humidity to be more stable -
getting a solid cover for tank - plexiglass/glass
covering top partially with saran wrap (experiment with how much is the right amount, allowing fresh air to still get in)
covering with lightly moistened hand towel/washcloths (have to moisten regularly, but also have open area to allow air circulation)
keeping water dishes on heater side of tank (if you have under tank heater)
adding sponge to water dish
adding forest bedding, but especially moss (spritzing with salt water to avoid mold)
adding an air stone to a fairly good-sized pool
adding a homemade humidifier
Also, ours changed shells very shortly after coming home, sometimes into shells too big, too small, but mostly just right. This could be a sign of molting, but many have said this could also just be "shopping around for clothes." Anyhow, a month later, she is down (maybe molting). The "Molting" list to the right lists a few of the symptoms that are sometimes apparent for molters - do you see any of these presenting in your crabbie yet?
One of our tanks is around 75degr and has been no problem. But do you have a cover with alot of open area? Check out Crab Care FAQ drop down list to right for "Maintaining Humidity".
Some ways that I've used myself or have read about to get humidity to be more stable -
getting a solid cover for tank - plexiglass/glass
covering top partially with saran wrap (experiment with how much is the right amount, allowing fresh air to still get in)
covering with lightly moistened hand towel/washcloths (have to moisten regularly, but also have open area to allow air circulation)
keeping water dishes on heater side of tank (if you have under tank heater)
adding sponge to water dish
adding forest bedding, but especially moss (spritzing with salt water to avoid mold)
adding an air stone to a fairly good-sized pool
adding a homemade humidifier
Also, ours changed shells very shortly after coming home, sometimes into shells too big, too small, but mostly just right. This could be a sign of molting, but many have said this could also just be "shopping around for clothes." Anyhow, a month later, she is down (maybe molting). The "Molting" list to the right lists a few of the symptoms that are sometimes apparent for molters - do you see any of these presenting in your crabbie yet?
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Guest
Topic author
It really is hard to say. When you're like me and you like black and white answers to things sometimes crabbing can be a bit frustrating. Crabby could just be making up for loss time, and there's no way to know for sure, but instinctivly that sounds pretty pre-molt to me. You'll just have to wait and see.