Deep cleans detrimental?

Crabby Abby · Post by **Crabby Abby** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:15 am

Hey all,I read this article on CSJ regarding Post Purchase Stress and how taking a stressed crab from poor store conditions straight to an ideal environment taxes them further by forcing their weakened systems to attempt to adjust to too much too quickly. It's something that's been discussed here and we're already aware of since we know to gradually up the humidity of crabs that we know to have had deficient ranges prior but sometimes we lose crabs unexpectedly at a later date, beyond what we consider PPS to be and I wondered if anyone thinks that deep cleans may be more detrimental than beneficial? It's not recommended to do complete water changes on fish and some bacteria is known to be necessary so does anyone think we might be harming our crabs by moving them to a sterile environment of new susbstrate, boiled or baked woods, washed dishes and pools?I'm personally not in the habit of steralizing decor as part of a clean unless it's to rid the tank of bugs but I know some people do.Thoughts?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:22 am

I read the article. I always thought buying a crab form the petstore and then transfering it to ideal conditions would relieve its PPS? I dont really believe putting a hermit crab from poor conditions into ideal conditions is gonna stress them out. Thats sounds kind of silly.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:27 am

If you take a kid off the streets and place him in a palace, he'd probably be pretty stressed out. He'd be better taken care of, for sure, but it's not something he's used to. Not the perfect comparison, but that's all I could think of.I don't do deep cleans regularly...or often...ever? What I call a deep clean, other people would call a quick clean. The most I do is take everything out, rewet the substrate, and put everything back in.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:33 am

I don't think deep cleans are detrimental. Frequent deep cleans might be. And frequent re-aranging of the tat might be stressful to the crabbies. I only deep clean every 4 - 6 months, providing all the crabs are up, or if the substrate gets to smelly and/or moldy.Cheers.

KittyCaller · Post by **KittyCaller** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:00 am

I have heard of overwhelming, but I'm not sure where I stand on the issue. I don't think I've seen enough evidence one way or another to sway me. I don't do complete deep cleans anymore, however. I change out fairly large amounts of substrate, but I don't change it all at once anymore. I heard that good bacteria builds up in the substrate and I don't want to upset that too much.

newhermiemami · Post by **newhermiemami** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 10:58 am

You know I'm glad you posted this thread Abby. I had to do a deep clean today in my new guys tank. There has been a musty, fonky smell in there for several days. It wasnt my crabs. I was having a problem with the sand molding but I think it might just be food I couldnt see, since the mold was occuring around the food dishes. But anyways I thought it might be best to do something. I put the 2 new guys in my KK with some sand and a bit of food and covered them as to try to reduce stress, while I cleaned. I pulled everything out and rinsed out the tank a bit with some water. I put everything back together but I noticed there was mildew on the back of my coco climber thing. So I sprayed it down with saltwater. Hope that helps to kill it. I'm also going to try to keep the humidity down more than what it is so hopefully it will prevent the mildew and mold. I was concerned though about having to do this with the new guys. I have only had them almost a month...(cant remember exact date) but I hate to have to desturb them. They are now climbed to the top of their net on top of their coco climber. So I covered the top of the tat with a towel so Jack and Guy could be hid from all the commotion of the house. So does anyone have any suggestions in a case like this, when I really had to do the deep clean? Does it sound like I've covered all my bases? Should I do anything else???

Nicole · Post by **Nicole** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 4:30 pm

When I do a deep clean it is maybe 3-4 times a year at best, but I haven't had new crabs in quite a while. I do dump out all the sand at this time because it really just gets so funky-smelling, even with the saltwater being added to it. It may be a different scenario for EE users, though, as that would tend to develop and maintain the good bacteria easier than sand would.Is it stressful? Maybe. But I rarely go all out and sterilize everything when I deep clean either; it's enough just to rinse out the tank, wipe it dry, and add 50 more lbs. of fresh sand. So the crabs don't come back to an entirely sterile environment in my case. I could definitely see where it could be a shock to the system if one had new crabs and did this, particularly on a frequent basis. It think in trying to maintain the microenvironments in our tanks, we have to remember that we have drastically lowered our crabs' living space from what they were used to. Therefore, the level of "bad" bacteria that might not hurt them in a wide open space may prove harmful in a relatively small, consistently humid tank. This makes deep cleans necessary at a certain point IMO.newhermiemami, can you cut away the parts of the climbing wall that were starting to mildew? That might be a temporary solution, rather than lowering the humidity since your crabs seem to be faring well in the current humidity. If the mildew doesn't go away I'd try and remove the climbing wall, though.

Jedediah · Post by **Jedediah** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:45 pm

I don't do deep cleans at all. I clean the water and food bowls of course and the glass of the crabitat, but otherwise everything stays as it is. My previous crabitat worked that way for two years and I've seen other enclosures (not for crabs, though) that were set up decades ago. This wouldn't probably wouldn't work with sand, but with coconut fibre substrate it does - as long as you tolerate bugs like springtails, booklice and/or woodlice with your crabs, who clean away crab poop, leftover food, mold ect.

NewCrabber · Post by **NewCrabber** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:09 pm

Interesting thought. Just my two cents, but I don't think a deep clean would have a negative affect on healthy hermies. Not a significant one anyway. I used to do regular deep cleans every couple of months. When I upgraded to a larger tank, it was twice a year, now it's usually only once, only because of the size if the tank. But I never noticed a pattern of deaths, bad molts, stress/illness around deep cleans, in any case.ateensmom, bless your heart for the work you do fostering. I can only imagine the psychological impact a change of environment can have on some of them. What a challenge for all of you.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 5:08 am

Funny, I usually completely change the sand in my tank every few months & clean & re-arrange, & my crabs seem to love it! They're usually a lot more active right after...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 5:23 am

Being the avid fish person. Even in sand there is beneficial bacteria. Coming from my fish keeping background, I do not do more than a 50% substrate change. Because it is sand, I can't always see the food to remove it, so keeping some of the beneficial bacteria around is good to decompose the leftover food and feces. Just like in a fish enviroment. If you remove too much of the anaerobic and aerobic bacteria's the tat will get dirtier faster.