ISOing New Crabs

PSUPrncess10 · Post by **PSUPrncess10** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 3:29 am

I've had absolutely NO LUCK ISOing new babies - I've tried ISOing and just introducing to the main after a quick dunk in the bath and the ISOs always die and the ones introduced right away have had no trouble at all... I guess it's all a matter of personal preference and what works best for your crew...I also don't ISO my molters... same story as above, they do MUCH better molting in the main than being transferred to ISO - not sure why, but they do and none of the others ever bother molters (I only had one case last summer when Karston was burried and molting smack up against the glass where I could see and Hunter started going after him, so I basically used the soda bottle method to block off the corner of the tank he was in)

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 5:00 am

same story with me, only when my crabbies molt I do ISO them till they ate their exo, then they're back in the game

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 5:21 am

Really? I guess I should try not ISOing newbies...so the two nebies I got 10 days ago that are in ISO right now...should I put them in the normal tank? Wait that may not be a good idea since one is buried and I think the other is going to bury...wow that was a blonde moment .

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 6:20 am

I always ISO them for about a week, depending on the crab. I bathe them as soon as they get home and then send them straight to ISO. I put them in the main tank when they seem a little more active and less afraid and if I'm sure they're not sick or infected in any way. This has taken about a week for all of my crabs, so I've never really had to leave them there longer.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 7:24 am

I iso crabs new from the pet store, for up to a month. Molters I don't iso, and I've never had any problem with anyone messing with a molting crab. Crabs from someone else (like the ones I'm getting Friday, woo hoo!) I don't think will need iso, just some nice quiet time, which I can manage for them.

motley crew · Post by **motley crew** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 10:19 am

before I was on this site I never even thought of it and did'nt have any problems so i'm sticking to it.I had a mass molt of all my crabs and did'nt lose one of them (knock on wood)I hope there always good and healthy but I can see when it can be good for a crab to be ISOed

Nicole · Post by **Nicole** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 3:10 pm

My main tank is well-established, and I would never want to mess with one or more of my "old crabs" getting sick and dying by not ISOing a new crab. I have had newbies die of PPS, but I don't believe IMO it's the ISOing that did it. I can't prove it, but I'd rather them die in ISO than die in the main tank and wonder for weeks whether they were sick and contagious. I would recommend buying new crabs in pairs, though, so no one is lonely in ISO. My last newbies were ISOed for a month.CrabbyMom, I have always introduced new crabs to older crabs in the play pen so it is more neutral, and I can easily observe any conflict. That way all crabs can be introduced at one time.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 5:00 pm

P.S. I only ISO newbies for a month when they show aggressive behavior towards my other crabs, leading me to believe they need an extra-long de-stressing time lol

KittyCaller · Post by **KittyCaller** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 6:50 pm

I always buy at least two crabs at a time so the new crabs aren't lonely during their month long isolation period. I still remember the posts that people made when they bought a new crab and just plunked them in the tank. The new crabs and then already established crabs slowed down, dropped limbs and died. After reading that, there's absolutely no way I'm gonna take any chances.

tnyfootprntz · Post by **tnyfootprntz** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 2:32 am

I personally agree with the four-week rule for iso-ing newbies (even though I failed to adhere to it ) Week one is pure de-stress time. Second week gives time to discover any health and behavioral problems (good reason for an iso tank-mate) and take care of any parasites that might be present. Weeks three and four gives crab a chance to decide to molt or shell-change without distraction of main-tank life.Our new big pp stayed in iso only 2 1/2 weeks because he lost his would-be iso mate the day after purchase; I didn't want him to be lonely and moved him to main tank yesterday when I was able to stick around and supervise. So far, so good.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 10:56 am

I used to ISO new and molting hermies until I reached about 15 hermies. Now that I have 21, I haven't adopted any new ones, and I don't ISO at all.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 1:46 pm

I read that your supposed to bathe new hermies to get all your hermies to smell the same...My question is...Are you supposed to put them in ISO after that, or before that? It would seem like you would do that after you ISO them to de-stress...but on the flip side, if you just bought a few, you would want to bathe them and then iso them...so they don't attack each other in iso or whatever...

Nicole · Post by **Nicole** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 3:51 pm

quote:I read that your supposed to bathe new hermies to get all your hermies to smell the same...My question is...Are you supposed to put them in ISO after that, or before that? It would seem like you would do that after you ISO them to de-stress...but on the flip side, if you just bought a few, you would want to bathe them and then iso them...so they don't attack each other in iso or whatever... I would ISO the hermies first, and then bathe them when you are completely done ISOing. As long as you got them from the same store and cage, they should (presumably) be used to each other and smell pretty much the same. I've never had two hermies attack each other in ISO (yet!).

Post by **JediMasterThrash** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 1:51 pm

You should definitely ISO new crabs. Especially if you have a well established tank.I don't know if the old threads have been transferred over from the old forum, they might be in the archives. 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.For that particular outbreak, you needed to ISO your new crabs for a month to tell if they were sick or not.There have been other cases of new crabs that appeared to have some weird "drunk" illness. The crabs would stumble and wobble like they were drunk. Eventually they died.Anyway, the point is, if you have an established tank, you don't want to risk introducing a sick crab into it. You might lose it all in a rare case.The best recommendation is 1 month for ISOing new crabs from stores.I usually check on all the new crabs after 14 days. Because PetCo has a 14 (15?) day return policy. So if any of the new crabs have died from PPS, I can return them for a refund.I also make sure to buy more than one crab so they aren't alone in ISO.Usually you can tell the risk factor of the crabs by looking at how healthy and active they are, and the conditions of the tank and petstore they came from. For low-risk crabs, I've usually let them in the main tank after 2 weeks. But I can only recommend the full month to others.An adoption from an experienced member's main tank might be straight to your main tank (no risk crabs).I actually don't recommend buying high-risk crabs (crabs from disgusting pet stores or tanks with more dead than live crabs). They're more than likely on their death bed already. And I don't want to give those stores any of my business at all, not even for a "rescue".So, yes, even low-risk crabs should be ISOed. They were likely not in perfect conditions at the pet store, and will need 2 weeks to destress. It's easier for them to de-stress if they have their own ISO to just bury down into the sand for 2 weeks in (this is what the majority of my new crabs do in ISO). No other crabs trying to remind them of their new tank's pecking order yet (yes, established tanks have a pecking order).Though the original post wasn't about molters, many other people posted about it. I don't recommend ISOing molters. This assumes you have a tank with sufficiently deep sand for molting and your tank isn't overcrowded. Molt-attacks usually happen in overcrowded tanks (though there are exceptions to everything). Also, if you have dried shrimp/plankton in the food bowl daily, the crabs can satisfy their exo-eating urges on that more accessible, stronger-smelling source. It's very difficult to tell a molting crab from a normal crab, because most of the pre-molt symptoms are the same as normal behavior. Pre-emptive ISOing isn't accurate, and you should never dig up a crab that's already buried.The molting process is more detalied than just doing it. The molters will build up water in their shells to the right salinity. They will dig a tunnel and sit there for a while, and then go out to stock up on food one last time, and then as the molt is near, they are too weak to dig a new one. THey settle down in their tunnel and let the process take its course. If you dig them up, they might lose their shell water, and they might not have enough energy to redo it all right again in the ISO.If your tank isn't big enough or is overcrowded, you may have to do ISO molts, but I recommend getting a bigger tank as a long-term solution.