HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I moved a year ago, and now I provide only reverse osmosis water to my crabs. I didn't realize this until today, but it has been within the past year that I have had a problem with bigger crabs suddenly dying without any apparent reason. The articles seem to indicate that RO water is better than unf...

I have always had FMR food as my staple/base food in my crabs' diet. The recent crab deaths are, I feel, associated with the time frame when I purchased them, and they all came from the same store. I have used FMR for over five years, and I still have two of the original five PP's from 2000. They ar...

Excellent post and I couldn't agree more with your opinion. Thanks so much! When I first began keeping crabs, I noticed more crabs dying of stress (lost limbs, etc) shortly after bath time. I quit giving baths all together and just provided water for them to soak in, and I haven't had that problem e...

I change mine every four months or so. :oops: I know this seems like I should be changing the FB more often, but as long as I am careful to clean up food bits and mist it down regularly, I've had no problems. Many times my smaller crabs will dig down to molt, so I feel I disturb them less often. Lau...

I will bury them beneath a special perennial plant. If the season is too cold, I freeze them, sometimes shell and all depending on the crab, until the ground thaws. I buried a couple beneath an apple tree, so now I call it my "crab apple." I like the fact that as the plants bloom, I have a living me...

**Were your mites from long term owned crabs or new crabs The mites I've had in my tank came from newly-adopted crabs or crabs I had purchased at stores. **What kind of substrate were you using when you got them Forest Bedding **what kind of top do you have on your tank I use glass lids with some co...

Do you have some type of fan that you can either place in an open window to exhaust fumes, or at least move air around in the room? I think that may be the quickest/easiest way to get rid of the fumes. I'm thankful you were able to see the damage done in time, before things got worse!

I LOVE that design with the straw holding the sign!!! I can't wait until they put "Back Off, I have hermit crabs " on the site as a bumper sticker. Bwahaha! I have "Crabby1" as my auto license plate. The few times my BF has had my car, he said he has noticed he doesn't get any tailgaters. Apparently...

Yeah, I remember Christa ended up getting some of the gnat eating gnats - and had GREAT results! This was... um... two years ago, I believe?

Good luck with your new straw! I still have three of them, but I bite my nails any time any of them even show any sign of impending molt.

Laurie

Thanks Crabbleapple for your idea! Crabbleapple wrote: It might be nice to have a thread where everyone listed any ill or injured or molting crabbies they are currently nursing, and kept everyone posted. I see a lot of mentions of "Oh, by the way, so and so's fine" or "so and so passed" I'd kind of...

Wow - a lot of info there! I thoroughly promote self bathing as much as possible. This way the crabs can determine how and when they want to hydrate. When I first began keeping crabs four years ago, I had a few die of limb loss and stress within a day or two of bathing them. When I noticed the conne...

*If* it does happen to be some type of fungus, you may notice your crab tends to pull away or flinch if you touch the affected area. Somehow this type of fungus is painful to them. Once they have a successful molt, the fungus is usually gone. I first noticed this on an E I had a few months ago. I pa...

whoo hoo! The article was in my paper last night (Monday) in the Food section, of all things.

Miss Christa, I'm sending you a copy of the entire section. I also have several coworkers on the lookout for when the article appears in the Ann Arbor News.

Two of the papers in my area are with Ms. Sefton's group; The Ann Arbor News and the Jackson Citizen Patriot, so I hope the article gets published soon!

Really? That's a great idea! Thanks for the suggestion.