worried about surface molter & exo(sad update)

troppo · Post by **troppo** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 8:36 pm

I hope someone can help me out with this.
Mojo molted last weekend on the surface,and she's sitting under a cocohut with her exo in front of her,and this morning when I had a quick peek,she hasn't even begun eating her exo! Is this the norm,or could there be a problem? She has begun to harden up,and retracted her legs when I peeked into the cocohut,everything looks normal,am I worrying over nothing?

Edit: it was a complete molt too,and she didn't drop any legs,as far as I can tell.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 8:50 pm

That IS unusual! For instance, two weeks ago I did a deep clean & acidently dug up a PP that had molted only an hour or two beforehand. I put her in ISO with her exo. When I peeked at her two days later, she was munching away. She is a rather large medium, and she finished her exo completely in a week.

Maybe offer your little oddity some honey heavily laced with crushed cuttlebone. She really needs that calcium right now for her new exo. I have no idea why your darling isn't eating the exo. First time I have ever heard of that.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 9:48 pm

My straw that surface molted waited a couple of days before she started on hers. I was getting worried when she finally started on it, and then she finished it within about 5 days or so. May the surfaces molts require a little more rest for some crabs.

troppo · Post by **troppo** » Wed Sep 20, 2006 11:18 pm

That's what I thought too,that it only took about 2 days for crabs to start eating their exo's,no longer than that

I don't know why Mojo's not eating hers,but I will get some honey and cuttlebone and give that a try,and still keep her exo near her for when she does decide to eat it. It's very odd,because Mojo looks absolutely fine,besides being a dark orange colour

I really hope she's ok.

troppo · Post by **troppo** » Thu Sep 21, 2006 11:51 pm

Dang it!

I now know what's happening,why Mojo's not eating her exo.
I pulled her out from under the cocohut just before and she slipped out of her shell(very close to death) and I saw on her mouth what looked like a black oiley substance,the same stuff that was on the other crabs that died.
Darn,I really thought it was a temporary thing.
I've made sure everything is spotless in that tank and the conditions are spot on too,with calibrated gauges,and now it looks like I'm going to lose every single one of my crabs

Mojo also had tiny black eggs?(5 of them) at the top of her abdomen,they were the size of a pin-head. Wonder if they were hers,or if there's something else going on.

Edit: Well Mojo's dead......I had another look at her and found grey patches over her back and black spots on her gills.
Whatever is going through my tank at the moment,sure is an efficient killer

HERMEZ · Post by **HERMEZ** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 5:14 am

Aw geez I am soooooo sorry-that type of thing sounds like a virus perhaps. I certainly hope the rest come out ok, can you remove the rest and deep clean? I think you may have already (sorry I cant remember)

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 3:52 pm

awww sorry about your loss

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 4:59 pm

That's a shame very sorry

troppo · Post by **troppo** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 5:21 pm

I deepcleaned the tat about 1 week ago(washed,baked sand,boiled anything that could be boiled,cleaned tat with vinegar & water before resetting the whole thing),really had hopes that the problem would end there,but it hasn't.
It looks like a virus of sorts,very depressing to know there's nothing that can be done about it.
Right now there's 7 crabs left in the tank,when they go,I don't know whether I'll be getting anymore crabs or not(and what to do with my tank?). It's hard,because I love the little critters...and the crabs that are left are my favourites,been with me for close to a year and a half.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 5:42 pm

awww u cant just let the little guys die! Are they already affected by the virus? If not, maybe a local crabber could babysit them for you for a little while until you figure out a way to solve your problem, or to keep them if you decide to get out of crabbing. I just hate to know that they have a certain death.....

troppo · Post by **troppo** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 6:36 pm

Hi Alika

,

Believe me,I really don't want to lose the 7 crabs that are left. The crab that died yesterday,Mojo,was one of my favourite female crabbies and had been with me since last year.
This morning I was in tears over her and scared witless and upset that the situation with the rest of the crabs doesn't look good. Of course I'll still keep looking after them,but it hurts to see them and think that there's a good chance they'll die too.
With Crabbers advice I'm going to pm Chestersmom and see if she can help me out in anyway.
If I give the crabs away,they'll still probably suffer the same fate,but in worse conditions most likely,as the only people that can look after my crabs would be at the pet stores,and they have terrible conditions. I don't know any people here in my town that are actual crabbers.

starmaiden · Post by **starmaiden** » Fri Sep 22, 2006 6:52 pm

I'm so sorry you are going through this troppo! It sounds really terrible!

troppo · Post by **troppo** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 6:49 pm

Thanks for the kind words Starmaiden...
Right now,Eeyore(in my avatar) is molting at this moment. I thought last night that he was going to die as he's affected with little black specks on his gills too and he was limp in his shell.
This morning I went to check on him and found his body all bloated and another crab tucked up beside him all asleep. I gently moved Eeyore to ISO and 2 hours later I saw his eyes were hollow- looking. I am not sure at all of his chances of making it through this,as he'd most likely suffer the same fate as Mojo

It's painful to keep losing crabs in this way.

Tremors · Post by **Tremors** » Mon Sep 25, 2006 7:06 pm

I'm really sorry you are losing your crabs this way.

I know how bad I would feel if I started losing all of mine.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Sep 26, 2006 12:03 am

Oh my gosh troppo...this is just heartbreaking. I am so sorry. I'm keeping you and the crabbies in my thoughts and prayers. I hope you don't lose anymore. So very sorry.