HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Many of us more experienced members don't post about our failures, only our successes. So it may seem that we never have things go wrong in our tanks. Sadly this is not the case and we sometimes make mistakes too.

I had been missing one of my straws for quite some time. I realized the other day I hadn't seen Clementine, my light orange female straw, since late December or early January. I made the decision to dig.

She had passed, so had Kyushu, one of my favorite ruggies. :crybaby: At least I'm pretty sure the remains I found were Kyushu.

I also injured a freshly molted Aka with my digging. I should have been more careful even though I didn't expect to find more molters. He is now in ISO-- missing 2 legs and his BP, but making headway on eating his exo with his LP. Hopefully, he'll pull though. Good news is his coloring is much darker, so my dried papaya experiment over winter appears to have worked...if I hadn't gone and screwed things up for poor Aka! :crybaby:

The very bottom of the tank where the molters were was sopping wet. It was soupy like it had flooded. They were sitting in water! I think what may have caused that is the gravel side, where I have their half gallon salt pool with bubbler and their fresh pool, allows any spillage of water or condensation on the glass (and there has been plenty, its been a long cold winter) to go directly to the bottom of the tank where it collects and is not evaporated.... I may make a layer of sand, then add the gravel on top and see if that fixes it.

So sorry to hear about that.

Good luck on Aka's recovery.

I'm so sorry Starmaiden . Your story sounds too familiar about the flooding. It seems the substrate can look just fine, and be sopping wet at the bottom. I've started adding more EE to my sand, but then I hear that the EE could be responsible for my new outbreak of shell rot ????!!!!!!.

:crybaby: I am so sorry.
my old crab Lola i now think was molting, looked dead,she was limp, dry, and to big for her shell, so she was sitting on the sand and did not move for 3-4 days so i put her in ISO for 1 day and, nothing, i picked her up, she fell out of her shell (she still had coloring :crybaby: ) and barried her in the yard
:crybaby: :crybaby: :crybaby: :crybaby: :crybaby: :crybaby:

First I am so sorry to hear about Aka I hope he recovers well

But, honestly, it's nice to know even the best hermie keepers have disasters happen....I am so sorry to hear about your losses....I really need to check through 2 of my tanks for some MIA crabs...

Thanks for sharing your post with all of us.......and please keep sharing.....

So sorry star....these little boogers really keep us worrying!

About 2 weeks ago, I was finding straw legs in one of my tanks. I knew it wasn't Daiquiri, so I too decided to dig. Well, Rhubarb was missing. Found the shell, no crab. So those were def. his legs
I didnt' have a flood, however, but the opposite. In the very back corner of my tank, my EE was dry right down to the bottom. This is where I found Rhubarb.

So yes, we all make mistakes and don't do everything perfectly by our little friends.
If they could only talk, we'd know just what they need.

Sorry to hear about your losses Star. I too have recently lost Peace, which was my last female. I will be leaving my hermies at 2 now I think. The big boys seem to have little trouble will survival, while my littlies all get eaten. We try our best though, hey?