Not sure whats going on with small crabs

[SlackJacket]

I’ll try and keep this as short as I can. I had my first death a few days ago.
He was my smallest crab and I had no clue what killed him, I’m still mostly unsure but I have a suspicion.

He was never really super active, neither is the second smallest, but he suddenly grew extremely lethargic seemingly out of no where. He had just came out of a molt A few months prior, so I ruled that out, I try my best to keep my humidity and temps in check to the best of my ability and even bought a humidifier- thats where my suspension comes in- I think I killed him slowly because Im stupid and did not think to treat the humidifier water until the day he had passed. Since then I have corrected this mistake.

However, this seems to only be affecting my smallest crabs, which are just two, well I guess one now, but the others are still extremely active.

I had also thought that the BIGGEST crab was bullying my smallest, because they didn’t often go near him and because when I began getting paranoid due to the second smallest being in one spot for well over a day far from the hides and the food, when I picked him up he began eating sand off my hand and when placed in the food bowl he ate for I think 15 or so minutes non stop, my biggest DID NOT like this and tried very hard to get to him and my smallest came very close to running away from him but I kept him from bullying him so he could eat.

I’m not really sure if thats a thing though? Do bigger crabs pick on smaller crabs like that? Not allowing them to eat or really be anywhere near them very often? I’m not ruling out the humidifier yet, but the only reason I’m not fully set to belive it was that alone is due to the fact that it ONLY affected my smallest crabs..

Also, I can’t really tell if I should isolate him or not. He’s still responsive, but slow, and does not move much unless I pick him up or wave my hand over him. Otherwise, he’s usually just sort of there while my other crabs are all over the place, especially my biggest. My biggest is so huge that I may have to connect another 50 gal to this one at somepoint in the future.

[SlackJacket]

Okay......

[CrabbyLover77]

Hi!

Were you using tap water in the humidifier? I'm not sure if chlorine would be converted into the mist, but tap water is bad for the humidifier itself. Mineral deposits can clog up the unit, and bacteria from tap water can be dispersed in the air (which would make it bad for you to breathe in).

What kind of top do you have on your tank? If it's a mesh top, you can completely wrap it in saran wrap to keep the moisture in. My personal preference is glass tops. Both my regular and iso tank have humidity levels that read 99% all of the time. The glass really holds the moisture in.

It sounds like you may have a potential bully situation going on. I would keep the handing of the smaller crabs to a minimum to avoid stressing them out. How many food dishes do you have? If you only have one big dish, I'd suggest splitting up the food into 2-3 smaller dishes so all the crabs have a chance to eat. I have 7 crabs and have 2 dishes out at all times so they can spread out a bit. Are you offering calcium and protein at every meal? Lack of protein could make your largest a little overzealous with guarding the food. If you have multiple food dishes, and are offering protein every day, and your largest is still being a problem, I would try isolating him for a week or so. Then you can see if your smaller crabs are more apt to come out to eat, explore, an pep up.

Usually crabs of all sizes can get along. However, there are crabbies that just don't want friends and need to be by themselves. I'm sorry for the loss of your small crabby!

Hope this helps.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk