HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I got two straws, two indos, and two violas. All small, all in decent shape. Half of them have moderate wounds of one kind or another; mostly broken leg segments, but one of the indos had the tip of one of its pincer-tips on its BP neatly cut off somehow. The violas have mites, but none of the others did. They are isolated for now; they seem to be mite-free after a few dunks in salt water, but I am giving it 24 hours in case there are eggs hanging around on 'em. The indos are ridiculously shy and started off sluggish, but they changed out of the gigantic, nearly fossilized shells they came in and seem a bit better. The straws have been exploring cautiously and won't leave the salt water dish. The four that are currently integrating into my main tank have seen a bit of bullying; one of my Es is pushing them around but this happens every time I introduce new crabs. In fact, the bully used to be my shyest crab. I can't wait until the new crabs acclimate enough to be so brave!

In all, I am quite satisfied with my purchase. We will see how their health holds out in the long-run, but (knock on wood!) they don't seem to have any PPS symptoms that I can tell. I would post pics but I can't seem to locate my camera.

Is there a chance the others will have or get mites since they were shipped together? I'm asking because I also ordered multiple species and while I could iso a few I could not put all of them in there because its only a 10g.

mom23 wrote:Is there a chance the others will have or get mites since they were shipped together? I'm asking because I also ordered multiple species and while I could iso a few I could not put all of them in there because its only a 10g.

Certainly, and this is why you will want to isolate mite-infested crabs.

I'm sure your new crabs can stand a couple days of overcrowding in a small tank for mite treatment. On the other hand, you could always order some h. miles, predatory mites, which will take care of the problem very thoroughly.

All of the new crabs are going into a new tank and I've decided to keep the pp's in the 55 for now since all but 2 are molting so maybe I'll fork out the $ for h.miles.

Just make sure your new crabs don't get a chance to burrow to molt if they have mites. That's how you get a never-ending cycle of molters preserving your parasitic mite population. If that happens it will take 2-3 more doses of predator mites and a lot of luck to get rid of the infestation.

Oh with my luck that'll happen. I think I'll just have to wait and see what the situation is and then decide. Did you iso yours with no substrate? I've not yet had to iso anyone.

I will have to try the pred mites

You should keep crabs in a sterile location if you are treating for mites. No sub, moist paper towels and a hidey. If you use the preds, you don't need to be so extreme.


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Yeah I decided to try the pred mites, been researching a few sites for them

mom23 wrote:Oh with my luck that'll happen. I think I'll just have to wait and see what the situation is and then decide. Did you iso yours with no substrate? I've not yet had to iso anyone.

When dealing with mites, it will need to be sterile. This should help
viewtopic.php?f=67&t=92530
It's a lot easier to just iso new crabs and nip them in the bud

I thought exotics were very sensitive so to speak and should be kept in optimal conditions. Does bathing them often and keeping them in a sterile enviroment not bother them? I don't want to send them into pps. I'm still new to crabbing in general and of course have no experience with exotics so all advice welcome. My other question is since they are all shipped together and if some of them have mites and others don't (when I first bathe them) is it a possibility I'll miss some and they'll get into the tank anyway? Thanks everyone for your help!

Also how long do you iso crabs with mites? To make sure there weren't eggs etc?

Rocky wrote: When dealing with mites, it will need to be sterile. This should help
viewtopic.php?f=67&t=92530
It's a lot easier to just iso new crabs and nip them in the bud

Thank you for this link!!

Got it! Thanks! I had read that whole link before but obviously forgot the bath instructions were on there.

Did anyone here order in August?