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Crab Dug Up Mid-Molt

Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 10:20 pm
by WinkyCrab
About 3 days ago I discovered that I had a mite infestation in the main tank. I'm pretty sure they were the harmless ones that fed off of rotten food and such, but I was not going to take any chances (I also just don't like bugs!) and I decided to do a deep clean. When I was removing the crabs for their bath and then relocation to a temporary tank, I started to dig a bit for Louise, who's schedule involves digging trenches around my tank, burying herself for a couple days, and overall messing up my substrate. She loves to dig, so I figured she was fine; I had seen her less than a week ago. I finally uncovered the top of her shell, and gently tapped the top of her shell, and listened. I heard the retraction sound, so I gently picked her up, and she was bright pink! She had molted in less than a week! I put her down and carefully dug around, and found the terror that is a fresh exoskeleton. I took a large tupperware, filled it with substrate that was around her, cupped the exo with dirt around it and put her right in front of it. I also put a tiny cup of fresh water and some of her favorite and healthy food in. I put the lid on the tupperware, and covered it with a notepad so it would stay dark. I have an overhead light system with two bulbs side by side, a day and night that run on a timer. I've been moving the tupperware next to the bulb that's not on so she's heated, but not baking. I'm checking on her every couple hours or so, and each time she'll have eaten the piece of exo nearest to her, like a walking leg. I'll slide a new piece right in front of her, and next time I check, it's gone. It's like i'm hand feeding her!This has been going on for about 3 days, and now there is only half a BP and one walking leg left. She won't eat any more of her exo, so that's good?. She hasn't moved from her spot, but today as I was checking on her and replacing some of the food for her, I heard a chirp! i carefully picked her up into my palm and to my surprise, she came out and walked a bit on my hand! I touched her BP, and it seemed pretty hard. Also her color is much better. I can claerly see her lag hairs and the black tips. Tomorrow i'm probably going to bathe her and move her into a better set up 2.5 gallon ISO I have with some salt and fresh water, some shells, some climbing and hiding stuff and better food. I also might put some moss on the ground for her. I'm really surprised at how well she's doing; I thought she would be in really bad shape and stressed out. I'm a fairly new crabber, and this is my 4 molt (3 other successes!) I really want the best for my crabbies, so if anyone has had any similar experiences or advice on what I should do, please share!

I'll keep updating on how she's doing, i'm super happy she's pulling through! :cheer:

Also a small question - Is it bad to bathe a crab soon after molting? I really want to move her into the actual ISO tank I just got rather than a plastic tupperware, but I'm really worried about mites!

Re: Crab Dug Up Mid-Molt

Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2016 4:09 pm
by Ilovehermies74
I had the same issue viewtopic.php?f=27&t=105074 and now my crab is perfectly fine :D its always nice when it works out :crabbigsmile: here is a picture of her and its been about half a yearImage she is doing awesome :crabbigsmile:

Re: Crab Dug Up Mid-Molt

Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 9:10 pm
by WinkyCrab
Thankfully, my little crabby is now in the main tat and is back to destroying everything! It was satisfying when her BP turned a deep purple! I was afraid she would lose some color due to being dug up. Your crab looks great!