First molt--and its Strawberry! Have some ???s UPDATE

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 4:13 pm

Hi all

,

Strawberry went down in the EE just over a week ago--I wish that I had marked the calendar--anyway, we are pretty sure that she has molted because we can see her if we look under the tank and the exo looks empty!

I'm just wondering about how long it "normally" takes a strawberry to eat its exo and resurface. I think that she is a medium, possibly a large

.

Also, we iso'd her under a 2-liter bottle because one of the other crabs was sitting a little too conspicuously right on top of the opening to her tunnel one morning when my husband got up! When should I remove the bottle? I'm worried that she will come up for food and water and won't be able to get to it. If she does come up, will she stay up until she can get to the food and water? I don't think that there is enough room in the bottle for her opening AND food AND water. Does anyone manage to cram it all in there?? Should I cram it all in??

Any and all advise will be appreciated!!

Thanks!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:51 pm

Just leave her be for now.

She knows what she is doing and trust me, you'll know when she surfaces. There will be a big EE mess everywhere inside the bottle when she does. lol I, unfortunely, do not have a large straw, though, so I can't really quote any time frame for you, but I find most time frames are a little off anyways.

They tend to just do what they want to do and will molt at their own pace. Congrats on the molt, though. And you'll have to post some pics when she does come up.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 5:57 pm

It took my large(nowhere near jumbo) a month to do the whole process. His "sister" is down now, and she has been down for at least 3 wks.

You will probably either see the crab on the surface or see evidence of it having been on the surface when it is ready to be free. I would just take the bottle out at that point. They don't usually surface until they are hardened up.

Tetracolor · Post by **Tetracolor** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:06 pm

Yes, I agree with everything up there. You will definately know when your baby is ready to go because she WILL let you know.

Congrats on the molt.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:32 pm

If you are able to see her through a window, you should see the exo become mangled, and then it will look like only pieces...legs & crumbs. Crabs (strawberries included) may rest a day or two before they start to consume the exo. A medium-large straw will take a week or two to eat the exo. Don't worry if they don't eat it all. I have found that strawberries rare do. I am forever finding a strawberry exo leg here or a BP there.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:10 am

Hi again!

We are all so excited!!! We took a peek last night at Strawberry again and it looked like the middle of her exo had been eaten!! And we could see a couple of nice looking red legs move a little!! I can't wait for her to come back up so that we can get a good look at her! We are hoping that her color is nice and red...we had some good stuff for her, but not so sure abou the pet store, and we only had her for 2 1/2 weeks before she buried. I'll keep you posted!

And I will try to post pics when she comes up...I just have to figure out how!

I'm pretty new to this forum stuff!

Tremors · Post by **Tremors** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 10:59 pm

Great to hear the good news!

My two strawberries took so long to finish molting that I thought they had died! It was around one or two months, I think, and they were only borderline larges.

Sadly, I've lost them since then, but it sure was a nice surprise to have them crawling around the tank again.

Tetracolor · Post by **Tetracolor** » Fri Jan 25, 2008 11:17 pm

Glad to hear the good news!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Jan 26, 2008 10:12 am

YAY!!! Congrats on the molt! [smilie=banana.gif]
We def. need piccies of this little beauty when she surfaces!
Keep us posted!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 9:44 pm

Well,

Strawberry is still down, but I took a peek under the tank again last night and she moved. I am so impatient!!!! Tonight I put some crushed egg shells with honey in the "iso" bottle by her hole, so I'm hoping that she will maybe come up and eat some soon. Does anybody know if this will maybe coax her out??

Hopefully she surfaces soon and I can post a pic for all to see!! BTW, can anyone tell me HOW to post a pic? I have no idea how to.

Thanks!

Tetracolor · Post by **Tetracolor** » Sat Feb 02, 2008 10:19 pm

Well, she might come out, but I'd tihnk not. She'll probobly wait until she's eaten the majority of her exo and her new exo is nice and hard again.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Feb 03, 2008 12:21 am

[quote="darling99"
Hopefully she surfaces soon and I can post a pic for all to see!! BTW, can anyone tell me HOW to post a pic? I have no idea how to.

Thanks!

[/quote]

viewtopic.php?t=21578

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:25 pm

Well, not good news.

We haven't seen Strawberry move this whole week when we look under the tank, so tonight we went against everything that we have read and we very gently dug around her to see if she would move...she was definitely dead. I don't know why, and would certainly appreciate any possible reasons. We didn't have her long. Even though she lived for roughly 3 weeks, could it have been PPS?? When she fell out of her shell we could tell from her abdomen that she had been dead for a while now, but her exo seemed to be hardened. It was very pale though, not bright red like she had been...so her diet must not have been great before we got her.

I feel bad for the kids, we already had one crab die just a week after we got it, and now this one just a couple of weeks later.

MudCrabDude · Post by **MudCrabDude** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:43 pm

So sorry to hear about that, especially when things seemed to be going ok previously.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:24 pm

Oh no! That just broke my heart.

I was so rooting for her.

I'm so sorry for you and your family. [smilie=comfort.gif]