My crab has lost two legs one bing his big claw
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Guest
Topic author
My crab has lost two legs one bing his big claw
My son moved away and I am now taking care of his three hermit crabs. I know alittle about them. I keep the habitat clean give them fresh water with sponge, food and salt water everyday. They seem happy, but about a month ago one dug himself in deep and when he emerged he was minus his big claw and one other leg. I made sure he had a bunch of shells to change into after he molted but he is still in the same shell. He seems to be doing okay. he is eating and walking around and climbing. What should I do? Should I be worried?
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Guest
Topic author
Well, first of all welcome to the HCA! I'm sure you will find a bunch of great information here. And I don't think you need to be worried about your little guy, just as long as he is active and gets proper nutrition and water. I think he just had some problems while molting, it's known to happen from time to time. Good luck!
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troppo
Topic author
Gyday Spunky 
Koops is right,sometimes problems can happen with molting.
Just incase there's something going on,could you please fill out the help request template?
1. Substrate used?
2. Humidity % level in crabitat?
3. Temperature of substrate in crabitat?
4. Temperature of crabitat?
5. Location of gauges?
6. What is your heat source?
7. Types of water available?
8. Dechlorinator used?
9. What do you feed?
10. How long have you had the crab in question?
11. Do you know the species?
12. Do you bath them, if so how often and with what?
13. What type of housing are they in? Tank? Plastic box?
14. What size is your tank?
15. How many crabs are in the tank? What size are they?
16. How deep is the substrate?
17. If you take your hermies out daily to exercise, do you mist their gill area first?
18. Has there been any cleaners, paints, perfumes, air fresheners, candles, or smoking near the crabitat?
19. How often do you clean/sterilize and how?
20. Any unusual odors?
21. Do you use sponges? Are they rinsed daily with dechlor water? Are they exchanged every 2 days for a sterile one?
22. Do you feed fresh food? When do you remove it?
23. Are your hands clean before handling?
24. Has there been anything new added to your crabitat recently?
Koops is right,sometimes problems can happen with molting.
Just incase there's something going on,could you please fill out the help request template?
1. Substrate used?
2. Humidity % level in crabitat?
3. Temperature of substrate in crabitat?
4. Temperature of crabitat?
5. Location of gauges?
6. What is your heat source?
7. Types of water available?
8. Dechlorinator used?
9. What do you feed?
10. How long have you had the crab in question?
11. Do you know the species?
12. Do you bath them, if so how often and with what?
13. What type of housing are they in? Tank? Plastic box?
14. What size is your tank?
15. How many crabs are in the tank? What size are they?
16. How deep is the substrate?
17. If you take your hermies out daily to exercise, do you mist their gill area first?
18. Has there been any cleaners, paints, perfumes, air fresheners, candles, or smoking near the crabitat?
19. How often do you clean/sterilize and how?
20. Any unusual odors?
21. Do you use sponges? Are they rinsed daily with dechlor water? Are they exchanged every 2 days for a sterile one?
22. Do you feed fresh food? When do you remove it?
23. Are your hands clean before handling?
24. Has there been anything new added to your crabitat recently?
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Guest
Topic author
Crabby missing big claw
Hello Koops,
The following is an email sent to you by Spunky via your account on Hermit Crab Association. If this message is spam, contains abusive or other comments you find offensive please contact the webmaster of the board at the following address:
techsupport@hermitcrabassociation.com
Include this full email (particularly the headers). Please note that the reply address to this email has been set to that of Spunky.
Message sent to you follows
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Substrate used? Play sand (home depot)
2. Humidity % level in crabitat? 80%
3. Temperature of substrate in crabitat? don't know how to measure that
4. Temperature of crabitat? 77 78
5. Location of gauges? midway up the back of the 10 gal glass tank
6. What is your heat source? my son never had one
7. Types of water available? salt and fresh (HBH Hermit crab salt one cup water to 1 teaspoon salt)
8. Dechlorinator used? Have a reverse osmosis water system my husband uses for our fish and the fish are fine.
9. What do you feed? Tetra fauna Hermit crab cakes
10. How long have you had the crab in question? one year two months
11. Do you know the species? I think all 3 are pp
12. Do you bath them, if so how often and with what? once a week in the filtered water
13. What type of housing are they in? Tank? Plastic box? glass Tank
14. What size is your tank? 10 gal
15. How many crabs are in the tank? What size are they? I'm not sure Like the ones you see for sale in most pet stores
16. How deep is the substrate? a good 3 inches
17. If you take your hermies out daily to exercise, do you mist their gill area first?
I don't really take them out but to give them there bath
18. Has there been any cleaners, paints, perfumes, air fresheners, candles, or smoking near the crabitat? We did paint my sons room when he left in the beginning of Sept. We used Behr brand latex paint
19. How often do you clean/sterilize and how? I washed and replaced the sand once and then Spunky went down under. So my son told me you leave them alone when they do that. So I just clean the feces out everyday give them fresh food salt water a clean sponge and fresh water.
20. Any unusual odors? Nothing unusual to my nose. But I never thought the tank smelled great anyway. You know wet damp sand.
21. Do you use sponges? Are they rinsed daily with dechlor water? Are they exchanged every 2 days for a sterile one? Yes I do it everyday and let it go on the weekend. I have two sponges and let one dry out while the other is in the tank.
22. Do you feed fresh food? When do you remove it? I haven't yet. They have only been in my care for a little over a month. I didn't want to change too much my son has had them over a year so I figured what he was doing was pretty good.
23. Are your hands clean before handling? Yes
24. Has there been anything new added to your crabitat recently? No just me as their caregiver
The following is an email sent to you by Spunky via your account on Hermit Crab Association. If this message is spam, contains abusive or other comments you find offensive please contact the webmaster of the board at the following address:
techsupport@hermitcrabassociation.com
Include this full email (particularly the headers). Please note that the reply address to this email has been set to that of Spunky.
Message sent to you follows
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Substrate used? Play sand (home depot)
2. Humidity % level in crabitat? 80%
3. Temperature of substrate in crabitat? don't know how to measure that
4. Temperature of crabitat? 77 78
5. Location of gauges? midway up the back of the 10 gal glass tank
6. What is your heat source? my son never had one
7. Types of water available? salt and fresh (HBH Hermit crab salt one cup water to 1 teaspoon salt)
8. Dechlorinator used? Have a reverse osmosis water system my husband uses for our fish and the fish are fine.
9. What do you feed? Tetra fauna Hermit crab cakes
10. How long have you had the crab in question? one year two months
11. Do you know the species? I think all 3 are pp
12. Do you bath them, if so how often and with what? once a week in the filtered water
13. What type of housing are they in? Tank? Plastic box? glass Tank
14. What size is your tank? 10 gal
15. How many crabs are in the tank? What size are they? I'm not sure Like the ones you see for sale in most pet stores
16. How deep is the substrate? a good 3 inches
17. If you take your hermies out daily to exercise, do you mist their gill area first?
I don't really take them out but to give them there bath
18. Has there been any cleaners, paints, perfumes, air fresheners, candles, or smoking near the crabitat? We did paint my sons room when he left in the beginning of Sept. We used Behr brand latex paint
19. How often do you clean/sterilize and how? I washed and replaced the sand once and then Spunky went down under. So my son told me you leave them alone when they do that. So I just clean the feces out everyday give them fresh food salt water a clean sponge and fresh water.
20. Any unusual odors? Nothing unusual to my nose. But I never thought the tank smelled great anyway. You know wet damp sand.
21. Do you use sponges? Are they rinsed daily with dechlor water? Are they exchanged every 2 days for a sterile one? Yes I do it everyday and let it go on the weekend. I have two sponges and let one dry out while the other is in the tank.
22. Do you feed fresh food? When do you remove it? I haven't yet. They have only been in my care for a little over a month. I didn't want to change too much my son has had them over a year so I figured what he was doing was pretty good.
23. Are your hands clean before handling? Yes
24. Has there been anything new added to your crabitat recently? No just me as their caregiver
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troppo
Topic author
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Guest
Topic author
Any help would be appreciated
Anyone can help . The crab in question is still doing fine. I was just very shocked to see him missing his big claw and one other leg. Will they grow back. I'm all so concerned that he won't change into any of the shells I bought for him. (yes they were all boiled for 10 min. and cooled before I put them in the tank) Thanks appreciated
appreciated-
Willow
Topic author
If he had lost the limbs from stress, he probably wouldn't make it. But, because he lost the limbs while moulting, he has a pretty good chance. I don't think it's anything you did or didn't do; sometimes moult problems just happen. He should grow them back the next time he moults. Giving them fresh foods, especially leafy greens (romaine, greenleaf, redleaf lettuce, dandelion leaves, kale, etc---NOT iceburg lettuce), really helps reduce moult deformities. Commercial foods have some ingredients that can make mouting difficult for them. You can give them all kinds of fruits and veggies, and even unseasoned meat and seafood. Try to think about what they would eat on the beach, and feed them that. Here's a good site, with safe and unsafe food lists: http://www.epicureanhermit.com/
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troppo
Topic author
Hi Spunky,
You're taking pretty good care of your crabbies There's just a couple of things here that might need looking at.
If your humidity level's 80% and you have the gauges halfway up the tank,then where the crabbies are living,the reading would be higher. It's best to place the humidity gauge at substrate level.
Also,the bathing. Crabs don't really need regular bathing as it will cause stress. If they have their dishes of water in the tank(salt & fresh) that they can bathe themselves in and be able to climb out easily,then that's the best way to go
Good luck with your crabbie and let us know how it goes.
You're taking pretty good care of your crabbies
There's just a couple of things here that might need looking at. If your humidity level's 80% and you have the gauges halfway up the tank,then where the crabbies are living,the reading would be higher. It's best to place the humidity gauge at substrate level.
Also,the bathing. Crabs don't really need regular bathing as it will cause stress. If they have their dishes of water in the tank(salt & fresh) that they can bathe themselves in and be able to climb out easily,then that's the best way to go
Good luck with your crabbie and let us know how it goes.
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Guest
Topic author
Thanks for all the help
Troppo,
Thank you for all the help. I put the gauges at substrate level. I am still at a lost for picking out shells for them they don't like the ones I gave them. I don't think I'm getting the right sizes.
Spunky is still doing well and I will give them less baths
Thank you for all the help. I put the gauges at substrate level. I am still at a lost for picking out shells for them they don't like the ones I gave them. I don't think I'm getting the right sizes.
Spunky is still doing well and I will give them less baths-
troppo
Topic author
Hi Spunky ,
If your crabs are PP's,you could find out from other PP owners which shells they prefer. There's a shell section on this site.
Maybe you could start a topic to find out which shells you have and what kind of shells PP's prefer?( I'm not sure what PP's prefer,as I have Aussie crabs which probably prefer different shells)
Sometimes though,crabs can be very finicky and can be in a shell that they've outgrown and won't change at all even though you've placed a wide variety of larger shells in the tank for them.
It can help as well to get the shells from your tank and rinse them out in salt water before placing back in the tank with the opening of the shells facing upwards. Crabs usually become very interested in them after doing that.
,If your crabs are PP's,you could find out from other PP owners which shells they prefer. There's a shell section on this site.
Maybe you could start a topic to find out which shells you have and what kind of shells PP's prefer?( I'm not sure what PP's prefer,as I have Aussie crabs which probably prefer different shells)
Sometimes though,crabs can be very finicky and can be in a shell that they've outgrown and won't change at all even though you've placed a wide variety of larger shells in the tank for them.
It can help as well to get the shells from your tank and rinse them out in salt water before placing back in the tank with the opening of the shells facing upwards. Crabs usually become very interested in them after doing that.