Aaaand now I have strawberries-- story and questions

[karlys]

Last night and today have been crazy, in terms of unexpected hermit crab findings. First the new little E at Petco and now a couple strawberries at a reptile store we don't normally go to but were in the neighborhood. I never thought I'd see straws in person, let alone own a couple, but there they were. We wouldn't have even been over there if my bf hadn't really wanted a specific pizza lol. No pictures yet, they ran to hide in a dark corner as soon as they were done with their fw dip and I want to leave them alone for now.

One is a large in a WAY too small green turbo (he can't pull in at all and just scrunches up and folds his eyes down when scared) and the other is a medium in a well-fitting turbo. I have a couple shells that'll fit the big guy but they're murexes so we'll see if he's even interested. The shells I have for my jumbo PPs are too big and, of course, the shells for the tiny crabs are too little. Going to put in an order for new shells tonight.

They need UVB, right? And I know UVB doesn't work through glass so how do you guys mount your lights inside the crabitat? They also need a lot of saltwater. Is it enough that my bowls are big enough for them to fully submerge but not walk around too much (kinda just in a small circle)? Or do they need to be able to walk around a lot under water (longer/wider bowl)?

[aussieJJDude]

Many have reported having more success with having UVB, so yeah, if you can provide I'd suggest in doing so. Plus, other crabs will also benefit from having a UVB too, as i have noticed great increase of activity and 'hunger' with using a UVB. You can either mount in the tank - which they do have bulbs available, google, ebay or pet store will give you answers - or outside but have a hole or section of the lid missing and do a DIY setup.
As long as they can submerge they will be fine. If you have the space and the resources, bigger bowls wont hurt as well since a lot of them are large. But they are active, so its also important to ensure that they have space to climb, dig and 'run'.

Good luck, they are considered difficult to keep so hope you have some success.

[karlys]

Okay, awesome. I bought an 18" Reptisun 10.0, ordered a light fixture for it to go into, and bathroom level command strip Velcro stuff to mount it in the tank.
I don't think I'll upgrade their bowls at this time, as I just bought the ones I have now. They can definitely fully submerge though because they're big enough for my jumbo PPs to do so.
There was a small display of dominance between the smaller of the straws and my biggest PP but, after Papaya knocked the smaller straw over once, he was over it and moved along his merry way and didn't even investigate the big straw. There's been no movement from the big guy, other than shuffling. The two are huddled up together now so I put raw salmon, coconut oil, honey, and popcorn in little shells near them in case they feel too scared to venture off to where I normally feed the rest of the crabs.
I know that, unfortunately, they'll get better and more active or they'll succumb to PPS but I'm going to do my best for them.

[daws409]

Congrats on the newbies!.... I have uvb strip lights mounted inside my tank. I'll have to get back with the pics. There's another uvb topic with all of my details.

Sent from my HTC6515LVW using Tapatalk

[karlys]

I woke up to a trashed tank and I got hopeful that the straws were the culprits but I don't think so after closer inspection. It looks like one of my jumbos started to dig so they displaced a bunch of sand but stopped because both of them were waving their antennas at me from the cork bark. There was also a tiny hole, which led me to believe my E went down, but nope! One of my tiny PPs was sitting right next to Egg. The big straw moved at least two inches to the right and is on top of the shell I left with coconut oil and salmon but no movement from him when I approached the tank. I thought maybe the little straw dug down but he's sitting amongst/behind the shells that were chucked off the shell shop on the sub.
I'm really worried about them. :/

[karlys]

This is the smaller of the two. He crawled from the back of the tank in the dark to just sit where he is now sometime in the past hour.

[Happyhermiehome]

What a pretty color!

[KTM200xc]

Very cool. I have straws too. Sounds like you got it down. Watch for aggression from the pp's. Mine were a little mean to my straws when I first got the straws. Straws are also very docile, they never fought back, just submitted to the pp's.
On the sw as long is they can submerge, but the bigger the better. Have seen mine spend three or four hours under.
You will find them much more active then pp's once they get settled in.

[karlys]

Okay guys, can I get your thoughts/opinions?
I originally thought the bigger of the two was in a turbo much too small because he was hanging out of his shell really far and wouldn't retract. Like previously mentioned, he'd just scrunch and fold his eyes down. Last night, I saw him mostly in his shell for a little bit so he CAN fit into it, he's just choosing to hang out of it really far and even walk with it that way (even though I've yet to see him walk very far, just a few inches). I woke up to him this morning, hanging far out, like has been usual, and his eyes folded down. I thought he might be dead but, when I turned the UVB on, he "woke up" and moved a few inches to the right where there's some pillow moss and went under it as much as he could.
Do you think he's dying? I've left food near him but I don't know if he's eating or walking over it.

[aussieJJDude]

I'd give him time, remember they go through a lot before they get into our homes.

[karlys]

Unfortunately, the bigger of the crabs passed last night. It happened quickly. Although he was in a blind spot from the camera when he abandoned his shell, he was alive when I went to bed around 11 and was smelly when I found him this morning. The other crab was doing well before he buried a couple days ago-- was eating, drinking, and had begun climbing things. So, I'm hopeful for him.
The shop where I got them has a 30 day guarantee so I still haven't decided whether I'm going to get my money back or another strawberry. I want the buried crab to have a species buddy but I don't know. I know crab deaths are an unfortunate part of the hobby but it's beginning to weigh on me.

[Hermias_mom]

So sorry to hear about your Strawberry. It's so hard to lose one. I hear that Strawberries are particularly susceptible to stress, but even with purple pinchers death due to PPS just happens sometimes.

At least your crab had a good home and finished out his/her life in a wonderful place. Sometimes that's the best we can do for them. I really do think that counts for something, in the cosmic scheme of things. Each crab's life is important. We can't undo the bad treatment and whatever they suffered prior to coming to live with us, but we do the best we can to be loving and responsible crab owners/guardians. It's not your fault. I know it hurts.

Crabs do need a species buddy. I'm not you, of course, but if I had a living strawberry, I would probably obtain a species buddy for him/her after a suitable mourning period for the crab who didn't make it. You have 30 days, after all. Nothing to say you can't get a refund, and then go buy another crab later, assuming they still have strawberries. One of the things about strawberry ownership is that they tend to live about 3-5 years, despite our best care. If we knew more about their physiology and their bodies/needs we might be able to prolong their lives in captivity, but we do the best we can with the knowledge we have. Even ~3-5 years is better than living ~12-18 months with an owner who (through ignorance) doesn't offer the crab everything it needs to survive/thrive. If I was a crab cared for by someone who follows HCA guidelines, I would probably think I'd got it pretty good, all things considered.

Condolences on your loss.