ISOing New Crabs

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 2:20 pm

JMT, or anyone, you mentioned the pecking order within the tank. I recently reunited two crabs who displayed extremely aggressive behavior towards each other. Claw swiping and such. I gave them some shrimp per forum advice and a few days later introduced them again. They seem to be doing okay now, but the establishment of who's bigger and better is taking a while. My question is, with this environment should I be worried about putting my dime-sized baby PP in the main tank? I've had the little guy for almost a month now and I'm not sure if the others will accept him, or tear him apart.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 2:44 pm

JMT, I agree that you should ISO new crabs before putting into the established tank. BUT, I've lost so many crabs when I ISO'd the new hermies, that I had to give it up. Now, I lose very few. It's a risk, but it works for me.

NewCrabber · Post by **NewCrabber** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 6:13 pm

quote:Originally posted by CrabbyMom:I also have never ISOed newbies... I figured that it's better not to move them again in a few weeks once they've finally settled into an ISO tank - so why not just let them get settled in the main tank? I'm sure this is a rhetorical question, but I'm going to answer it anyway. A lot of crabbers either know or have heard about the horrific treatment and conditions hermies endure from time of harvest to pet stores. Most, if not all, I believe, suffer some degree of stress as a result. My theory is that the best chance they have to recover is to be left completely alone in ISO. There, they do not have to endure the commotion of a main tank, or outside commotion of any kind, can rest in peace and quiet and not face any possible competition. Once they've been given the opportunity to destress and regain strength, and if they are able to overcome their harsh journey, there shouldn't be any adverse reaction for a healthy crab to be moved from an ISO to a main. If sufficient time is given a newbie, making the move shouldn't be any more difficult than removing them from a main to get some exercise, clean a tank, etc. Also, IMO, it is better to ISO even when it is thought a move is too stressful or that a hermies appears to be fine than it is to add a newbie to a main and risk wiping out an entire colony because of an unforeseen illness.

Post by **JediMasterThrash** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 2:08 am

An important point I forgot to mention was that your ISO should still be of main-tank quality. If you just have a plastic cage with poor humidty, it's not going to be much better than their pet store environment. I recommend a 10g glass tank with a glass lid and 5 inches of sand as a newbie ISO. And the temperature and humidity must be good and stable.Follow my corner-method for humidifying the tank. Finger a hole in the sand in two corners nearly to the bottom, and then dump half a cup of dechlor water into each hole. The water will seep into the lower substrate and keep the humidity at 80% for a week. The crabs will also readily use this moist spot as a starting point for burying themselves. If they are weak from poor conditinos, they might not be up to taking water from the bowl and wetting the sand themselves. Though they'll probably at some point dump sand over the edge of the bowl and siphon all the water out anyway.A UTH is a good way to heat an iso.Which reminds me, again use a good water bowl. I recommend hamster bowls. They're deep, so they hold lots of water (for them to siphon out), while not having too large or a surface area, since there isn't much floor space in a 10g, and the deep base secures into the sand relatively easily so they don't tip them as often. Remember this needs to be maintank quality. So no shallow shell-dishes here either. Put a small sponge into the bowl so that the crabs don't fall in and drown though since it is deep (relative to tiny crabs) with steep sides.Make sure there is also something in the tank for them to hide under if they don't want to bury. Like a plastic cave or a bed of leaves/moss.As for putting small crabs in with bigger crabs, this hasn't been an issue in my experience. Most of my fights have been among the largest crabs vying to see who's boss when a new jumbo comes in. Or between crabs of the same size fighting over shells. Sometimes a bigger bully might kick other smaller crabs out of the food dish or a sand tunnel. But no real aggression. Keeping them well fed, with a good selection of extra shells, and not overcrowded usually prevents violence. My teenies often crawl right ontop of the big guys and they seem amused if anything.

kuplakrabs · Post by **kuplakrabs** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 1:59 pm

JMT-I always see eye to eye with you I think this would be a good thread for the library once it is finished. I was reading through some of the posts already in there, but this post seems to have some pretty good up-to-date information.BTW, I ISO only new/sick/naked crabs. New crabs always, without fail, get ISO'd for 4 weeks minimum.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Aug 24, 2005 3:12 pm

I haven't had much luck with ISO.

Willow · Post by **Willow** » Thu Aug 25, 2005 6:59 am

I do iso newbies for at least 2 weeks. Of course, as JMT said, the iso tank needs to be the same quality as the main tank. I use a 20 gallon tank for the iso, with fresh and salt water dishes and something for them to hide under. I don't have a bunch of climbing stuff in there, because usually they bury right away and aren't interested in playing. I don't usually iso moulters, I only iso crabs that are acting funny or have lost a bunch of limbs or are going naked. Usually I use a KK inside the main tank for that, unless the hermie is too big for the KK, then he'll go in the big iso.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Aug 26, 2005 4:01 am

I have a dominate crab that likes to 'assert' his autority on newbies so I ISO them for a week for them to destress a little and observe them for illnesses, give them a bath with the others as a group and then introduce them to the others. I've learned to buy them in groups so they are not lonely in the tank since one crab died in ISO all alone (he was no bigger then a dime so he probabley not able to take anymore stress). I also ISO the molters until their shell hardens and they are eating and drinking normally.

kuplakrabs · Post by **kuplakrabs** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 12:30 pm

A week or even two may not be sufficient to ascertain whether or not your new crabs are carrying a pathogen that can spread to your already established colony. If you have a lot of crabs in your established colony-chances are you also have a hefty fiancial & emotional investment as well. It would definitely be in your best interest (as well as the crabs) to ISO for a longer period of time. As JMT stated in his post above "For a year or two ago, several experienced crabbers with well established main tanks (in different parts of the states, but within the same several month span) had had their entire tank population die shortly after introducing new crabs." Our best guess was some kind of communicable crab disease. But it doesn't show symptoms for a month. In some cases, there were a few crabs that didn't die. So they bought new crabs to restart the tank, and then month later the whole bunch died again. If you do some searching on here, you will see he is very knowledgeable about the care of land hermit crabs. May be prudent to heed his warning.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Aug 27, 2005 1:52 pm

quote:a pathogen that can spread to your already established colony By pathogen do you mean mites? coughcough, I am attempting to deal with that issue at the moment...

kuplakrabs · Post by **kuplakrabs** » Sun Aug 28, 2005 1:58 am

A pathogen is "an agent causing disease", like some type of bacteria or virus. Mites can also spread to your other crabs. If you can identify them as parasitic, they may indeed be harmful to the crabs. However, I think a lot of the creepy crawlies that we find on our crabs may infact be some type of insect or perhaps mites that are not feeding on the crabs, but the detritus. If there are a lot of them in the substrate, you most likely will spot a few on the crabs simply because the crabs are walking on and digging in the substrate.If you can catch them, I'd love a sample of them so I can try to ID them. PM me so this doesn't get too off topic.Sorry this got off topic ...Now back to the poll on ISOing.