Possibly interrupted a molt by accident?

[ElektraSparkle]

Hi guys, I'm ElektraSparkle and I'm new on the forum however I've been reading up on a lot of topics posted on here months before I became a crab owner and I've run into a bit of a situation tonight. To save a bit of time, I've filled out the emergency questions:

1. What kind of substrate is used in your tank and how deep is it? Half play sand and half coco peat. Approximately 3 inches deep.

2. Do you have gauges in the tank to measure temperature and humidity? If so, where are they located and what temperature and humidity do they usually read? Humidity has been sitting on around 75%. Temp is around 25 Celsius (or about 77 Fahrenheit).

3. Is a heat source used in the tank? If so, what? Heat mat underneath tank.

4. What types of water are available (fresh or salt) and how is the water treated (what brands of dechlorinator or salt mix and what ratio is used to mix it)? Both fresh and salt water are available in two separate dishes. I use Zoo Med dechlorinator and sea salt additive in their dishes. I mix their water in measuring containers before putting it in their dishes.

5. What kinds of food do you feed and how often is it replaced? Today they have a mixture of mealworm, apple, honey and popcorn along with standard hermit crab food. It's replaced everyday, sometimes with something a bit different like pieces of broccoli and carrot as an example.

6. How long have you had the crab and what species is it, if known? I've had two crabs for almost 5 months and they are both Australian Land Hermits.

7. Has your crab molted, and how long ago did it happen? Possibly interrupted the molt of one crab and the other has never molted since I got it.

8. What type of housing are the crabs kept in, what size is it and what kind of lid is on the housing? 20 gallon glass tank with a glass lid.

9. How many crabs are in the tank and about how large are they? There are two crabs in the tank (Speedy and Slowpoke) and they are roughly 1 1/2-2 inches in size.

10. How many extra shells are usually kept in the tank, if any? They have three extra shells each of slightly varying sizes.

11. Have there been any fumes or chemicals near the crabitat recently? No chemicals to my knowledge.

12. How often do you clean the tank and how? Thoroughly cleaned out once a month.

13. Are sponges used in the water dish? If so, how are they cleaned? I have one small sea sponge in their salt water dish.

14. Has anything new been added to your crabitat recently? Nothing.

15. Is there any other information you would like to share that might be helpful (anything that is regularly part of your crab care, playtime, bathing, etc.)? Slowpoke (the crab in question) is not a very social crab and enjoys hiding but will come out to play every night. He's very shy and tries to hide away if I take him out. Speedy loves to be handled and will come out at any time of the day to play. He's the only one I've ever seen eating as well. Both have never been aggressive to one another to my knowledge.

16. Please describe the emergency situation in detail.
I was checking on the crabs tonight and gave their tank a bit of a mist to help keep the humidity up as we've had really hot weather lately and I don't like the tank getting dry. As I moved the sand a bit to rotate it, I found a leg and a claw just sitting there. In a panic I went looking for the crabs to make sure neither had suddenly died or anything but both crabs have all their limbs. I did notice though that Slowpoke's big claw and leg (right next to the claw) looked darker than usual and they look almost gel-like. He seemed a bit cranky tonight when I checked on him and he's been running around the tank like crazy (his name is actually a bit of a misnomer and always has been). Is it possible that I've accidentally interrupted a molt? And what could be the cause of him losing limbs?

[Cumba]

Hi, and welcome to the forum!

If Slowpoke (I love that name) was underground when you found him, he could've been in a molt. If you haven't seen him lately, then we can assume he was in a molt.

But if you see him every night or so, then he maybe he did drop limbs. I do not know the exact reason why, you would probably need a more experienced crabber to explain that.

I have a couple recommendations to improve your crabitat.
1. If you put the heat mat on the side of the tank, the heat will flow into the tank better.
2. You may want to add an inch or two on the substrate, I generally think the deeper the better.

I don't know how much I helped but I wanted to send lots of hugs

[LadyJinglyJones]

Heya!
Glad you joined the forum! (Though the conditions are unfortunate... )

Usually we recommend 6" as a minimum depth for substrate, or if your crabs are very large, 3 times their size. Asuggested above, more is more when you're talking about digging space: if a molting crab's tunnel is found by another crab, cannibalism can ensue. Crabs dig all over the place, not just downwards.

Crabs often don't eat the big pincher after molting. Also, they will be somewhat soft after a molt, and if he came up early (possibly because he was threatened by another crab due to lack of sub, but possibly also for mysterious crabby reasons of his own), that might explain his gel-ish-nous.

Some other possible stressors in the tank (and stress can cause agression, if that is what you're seeing) include:

Humidity is a bit low, minimum of 80 would be better.

The heat mat under the tank is actually a bit dangerous - they aren't designed to have all that sub on top of them, so they can overheat and cause a fire/cook your crabs.
It could be that slow poke came up early because it was too hot. The heat mat needs to be on the side of the tank.

You can feed them more variety, and more protein, in case a lack of some particular nutrient is the problem.

Playing with them isn't really recommended, as it can cause them stress. In the wild, they are prey animals. When you see them crawling rapidly all over your hands, it may be that they are frightened & trying to escape the giant that picked them up.

Also, we tend not to recommend commercial hermit foods because most of them contain preservatives that are actually dangerous to the crabs.

I'll link the food pages, in case you hadn't seen them yet!

http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... 25&t=92555

http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... 25&t=92557

http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... 25&t=92554

Hope that helps!! It sounds like there's a lot you're doing right, and you really care about your crabbies.

Oh, and before I forget - you can ditch the sponge... wet sponges then to breed bacteria.

[ElektraSparkle]

Thanks for your help guys.

I'm going out to get more substrate today as it looks quite shallow. I'm not sure if this is a great idea but since it's been really hot where I live at the moment, would it be worth not using the heat mat until it gets a bit cooler? We haven't had the outside temp drop below the high 20s Celsius and the room they're in gets quite warm and stays really warm for prolonged periods of time.

I don't handle them too often due to the stress factor; they only get taken out of their crabitat when it gets cleaned out thoroughly and they just play in their tank.

And I'll also make sure and include more variety in their diet. They also sometimes get some shredded coconut, almonds and sunflower kernels in their dish but it might be better to add more fresh fruit and veg. They seem to get a bit bored if they have similar foods all the time.

I'm still a bit new to looking after hermit crabs so I'm trying my hardest

[kieagcarm]

Crabs like hot weather, ideal conditions are 80/80(degrees and humidity) I was told not to use zoomed water stuff, I too used it for fresh water conditioner and salt water conditioner, and was told by this forums members to get prime and instant ocean. Apparently things made for hermit crabs are bad for them, it's crazy. So I would recommend changing the water stuff and leaving the uth on the tank, but like stated above, put it on the side of the tank, not under it. Also, do you make sure your substrate is sand castle consistency? They need it that way to be able to make their caves for molting. I recently made changes to my sub for the first time since I got my 20g tank and found my tiny crab, and I have her in iso because I am not sure if she molted. (I thought she made the great escape a few weeks ago but she apparently dug down for the first time) I couldn't find her exo so still don't know for sure if she molted or not, but I would recommend putting slowpoke in isolation for a few days, just in case.

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[ElektraSparkle]

Ah yeah, I've heard that about Zoo Med before. Luckily I've almost run out of the water conditioner and salt water mix so I'll be getting sea salt crystals and trying a different dechlorinator.

The sand is always of a sandcastle-type consistency so they can burrow. I tried hermit crab sand when I first started and found that it was way too dry to begin with. Now I get treated play sand in bulk as it's cheaper and other crab owners have recommended it.

I'll also put the heat mat on the back or side of the tank too instead of keeping it on the bottom.

Edit: I've done a reading with a digital thermometer/hydrometer and the temp is sitting on 27 Celsius (about 81 Fahrenheit) and the humidity is sitting on 83% today.

[aussieJJDude]

Hello,
Welcome to HCA. Glad to see another aussie here.
I can understand what you mean by the hot weather, last week in melbourne... It was beautiful! As long as your house temp does not dip below 25c i personally wouldn't worry about getting the UTH right away, but def would reccomend in winter. The best UTH I found was from ebay, some generic brand that kind of looks like the ultratherm that the people on the other side of the pond - US - use. Worked great when I had it properly sized to my tank! Would reccomend highly. (And good idea in keeping the UTH on the side, that's what we reccomend here.)

A good conditioner I would reccomend is prime, as that's what works best for me and all my pets, however I sure your local pet store can offer more. Just remember to look for a dechlorinator that gets rid of chlorine, chloramine & heavy metals (we do have low concentrations of arsenic and copper in our water... Which copper is believed to be detrimental to hermit crabs health.)
Depending on the salt mix you currently use, look for one with a marine grade. (Also, try to avoid aqua one sea salt, I find that it really doesn't mix well and prone to producing a lot of foam. But it is rather cheap and it does work! Red Sea is reccomended by a few aussies, and meant to be a lot easier to mix.)

Otherwise, I think the others have got it all.

As for the sand, if your looking to add EE, not a lot of stores sell it here - or it's like $10 a brick. Instead, go to bunnings and use coir peat - or coir fiber... its in bricks and expands in water. It has a blue label - and its like $3 each. and pretty much works the same. Many aussie owners reccomend having a 10:1 ratio of sand to EE, I personally don't... However its had great success for a vast majority, so thought of mentioning it. (As for myself, I prefer to have a sand mix and then a EE mix on each side so the crabs get to choose.)

[ElektraSparkle]

Yay another Aussie! I'm only an hour or so out of Melbourne and the weather has been great! Inside it stays around the perfect temp for crabs to thrive and the room they're in tends to retain heat throughout the night as well so I might not use the UTH for the time being.

A lot of pet stores in my area are not fantastic. There's next to no variety and the brands they do stock are known to be harmful to crabs. Might have to venture into Melbourne to find more variety or else start searching online for supplies.

I also have my substrate divided pretty evenly in half (so sand on one half, coco peat on the other so they can choose). Might go down to Bunnings tomorrow to get some of that coir peat. My crabs like to sleep in it instead of the sand so they must like it.

[aussieJJDude]

Yeah it has been. But it has cooled off a bit too much for my opinion! regardless, summer is awesome! But I'm sure your aware, winter time in Vic is horrible. You will want to get that UTH set up before/around autumn, so you can test how well it works and make the appropriate adjustments before the cold weather hits.
Haha, thats pet stores pretty much everywhere. i personally would reccomend Amazing Amazon if you can handle the drive, specialises in aquatic and reptiles... And they have some amazing wood - like cork as well as the "usual" driftwood for aqua. If not, online is your best bet! I personally love ebay and to a degree, gumtree (if you know what to look for). Bunnings as well is pretty good, many items can be "modified" for hermie use. Your surroundings - "cheap rocks" collected at the beach for example - can also be get. And then, the numerous $2 shops scattered around the Northern suburbs are a great place to buy plastic plants and things like shelving for levels ect...
I've found that they like to sleep in the EE, but for moulting purposes they really like a mix of half half. Most of my crabs found when moulting seem to moult in the "dividing range" of the two, so would mention that. (But I have had crabs in the past that have preference or either or a mix, so it really depends.)

[ElektraSparkle]

It's been fluctuating a bit too much for my enjoyment. In winter however, I might need to try and use something to insulate the tank to retain warmth.

Ooh I've checked out their website and they look awesome! If I'm ever down that way I'll be sure to go in and have a look. Thankfully they also have an online store.

Slowpoke spends almost all of his time in the EE, and I'm pretty sure he's molted/about to molt in it. He hasn't surfaced since I discovered the dropped limbs so fingers crossed that he is.

Speedy prefers the sand but I've found him in the EE a few times before. I've never known him to have gone through a molt and he's never changed shells before (pretty sure that has something to do with the breed from what I've heard).

[aussieJJDude]

Yeah, aussies can be a bit of a home body and don't really like change. They often mistaken for the "cousins", the E's because they look and act so similar.

[mrs.mr.hayner]

how can you tell the diffrence between aussies. and Eccie's ?

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[aussieJJDude]

how can you tell the diffrence between aussies. and Eccie's ?

Its a little hard to explain, but if you look closely you will notice that their markings are slightly different. One of the more promient mark is that aussies will have this "M" shaped marking on the carapace sheild - the top of the crab, the body behind the eye's and that aussies tend to have I slight brown line - like a highlight - thats very prominent on the legs.. And also, E's tend to have a few ridges on their claws, aussies do not. To a degree, if you know where the person comes from it can certainly help!! Very few in the US have E's, and no one - legally - will have E's in australia.

(its one of those things that its an innate response, keeping aussies all my life I can point out or look for their particular "trademarks".)

[GotButterflies]

Welcome to the HCA! The one thing that I would like to add is that it isn't necessary to thoroughly clean your crabitat that often. Most of us just spot clean food that might have made its way out of the food dish on a daily basis, water once a week (If you have bubblers), etc.

When I first started crabbing I had my tank 1/2 beach sand and 1/2 ee. My crabs mixed it on their own. Guess they knew what they wanted

[ElektraSparkle]

So just a quick update guys; Slowpoke has surfaced today and won't stop running around the tank! He's back to being himself again so he must've been in the middle of a molt when I found him. I discovered more of what I thought to be full limbs that have been dropped and never had I been more wrong. It was a half devoured exo!

Speedy has now been more sluggish than usual so fingers crossed he digs down for a molt too!