HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I got a new hermit crab. Her name is McMuffin and she is a small blueberry. I kept her in her own tank for a few days to make sure she had no issues. Today I took her out of her tank (I normally leave them alone and don't pick them up, just watch) and a tiny, TINY little speck crawled out of her shell. Would that be a mite? And what do you do about it. I took her out of the tank but now I am worried all of the crabs will get sick. I am totally freaking out.

Hi! Check out our thread on insects in the crabitat here:
http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... hp?t=92530

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Check out this thread: viewtopic.php?f=67&t=92530. It should help you determine what kind of mite and what to do. Let us know if you have any questions after reading it.

Edit: oops. Soilentgringa beat me to it.

Calla-we were probably posting at the same time

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soilentgringa wrote:Calla-we were probably posting at the same time

Yeah. That's one of the little things missing from Tapatalk. On the forum it would have alerted me to the fact that another post had been made before it posted my response.

Thank you all for the help. Is it pretty safe to assume that if something tiny, tiny ran out of her shell it is a mite? I can't see anything on her and I can't see in her shell.

Also, do I have to worry about my other crabs getting them?

Also have any of you tried adding an isopod to your tat? How would you even find one?

I have a breeding tank of isopods and put them in with my crabs.
Depending on where you live you can catch them with a potato trap. Don't put the first gen in with your crabs unless you're 100% sure they haven't been exposed to chemicals/pesticides.
Cut the end off a raw potato. Cut the larger part in half, lengthwise. Scoop out the inside with a spoon. Put sides back together (you'll have a hollowed potato) and secure with a rubberband or hair tie or whatever. Place outside in a shady spot at the base of your house and come back in like 48 hours and you should have a potato full of roly polys.

CrabbyCakes wrote:Thank you all for the help. Is it pretty safe to assume that if something tiny, tiny ran out of her shell it is a mite? I can't see anything on her and I can't see in her shell.

Also, do I have to worry about my other crabs getting them?

Can you post a photo of her so we can confirm she's a blueberry? Blues haven't been seen stateside in well over a year now and some pet stores and people assume that a bluish crab is a Blue when it's actually a Purple Pincher. Knowing what it is for sure is key - PPs almost never have bad mites, while Blues and other exotics almost always do have bad mites.

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wodesorel wrote:Can you post a photo of her so we can confirm she's a blueberry?

Here is McMuffin. Okay, so I know I am going to be buried alive for writing her name on her shell. I have a neurological condition that makes me forget names. I had a list with pictures next to the cage, but it really did not help. They make me so happy that I really could not part with them and this was the best I could come up with.

This was the best picture I could get of her.

soilentgringa wrote:I have a breeding tank of isopods and put them in with my crabs.

Do they actually help? I did not know they are rollie-polys! I was looking at pictures online and some were the size of cats so I could not figure out how they could fit in the cage with a crab! Do your crabs eat them? I

Just so long as you realize that they'll not only change shells but swap them between crabs as well. I once spent an entire day taking photos of the crabs and their shells and figuring out who was who, and when I woke up the next morning half of them had gone on a shell changing party and they were all wearing each other's shells from the day before. Between that and the constant molting which left them different colors I personally gave up on names except for those few that really stuck out from the pack and could be identified by personality or other unique traits. (Brain conditions suck. It's not the end of the world if the marking is where they can't reach it. Do what you need to in order to stay calm about having them. )

She's definitely NOT a PP, which surprises me. We'd need to see a photo of her claw when she's closed up in her shell for a 100% accurate species ID. but from what I can see there she looks like and Ecuadorian. Ruggie and Blue are other possibilities but the shield leg and eyes respectively don't look quite right for either. Bad mites are not as common on Es as the other exotics.

And it could have been something like a springtail or a food mites you saw. Normally when they aren't directly glued to the crab they aren't something to worry about. The bad mites attach to the eyes or joints and generally won't budge which is how they're identified. Straws can get a bad red mite that is also very quick, and those can spread to other species. Cross contamination can happen at the main warehouses before you get the crabs.

You have made me feel much better about the situation. Thank you. Sorry to have "crabby cakes therapy time." My concern really is I do not want people to see my crabs and think "best idea ever. I am going to scribble all over my crabs now. Maybe I will add glitter and ribbons while I am at it!"

Gosh, I had not luck with pictures either mostly because I have a terrible camera. The crabs have switched around a bit which has made it tricky. At the moment I have an empty shell for my crab Auby just sitting in the tat. Where is Auby? Who knows! I hear quite a bit of digging so I am sure she changed shells and then decided to burrow just to spite me

She is kind of a strange looking girl (I say that with love.) I will try to get some better pictures. She is hiding at the moment. Her eye stalks looks like E's but I have never seen one in person so I am guessing based on photos I have seen (on this site!)

I just read you hit your head. Are you feeling any better? I had a bad concussion in college and it took over a year to feel "normal." I was trying to finish post-tonal music theory, and having jelly in my head make it even more convoluted. Just an FYI my issues now have nothing to do with the concussion.

Here are two pictures of McMuffin. Hopefully they will help.

Looks like an E or a ruggie.

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