HCA: Hermit Crab Association

1. Substrate used? Playsand mixed with fb

2. Humidity % level in crabitat? 80-90%

3. Temperature of substrate in crabitat?How do I tell this?

4. Temperature of crabitat? 75-85 (warmer on one side for the strawberries)

5. Location of gauges?Along the upper back on each side

6. What is your heat source? 3 heaters

7. Types of water available? Salt and fresh, nice and deep

8. Dechlorinator used? Yes

9. What do you feed? Hermit Crab cuisine, Land hermit crab food, brine, color flakes, fruit and flower crab food, hermit crab treats

10. How long have you had the crab in question? 6-10 months

11. Do you know the species? PP

12. Do you bath them, if so how often and with what? Weekly, saltwater with de-stress

13. What type of housing are they in? Tank? Plastic box?
Glass
14. What size is your tank?
20L, and a 10gallon ISO (2 of 3 died there) (Temp is 80)
15. How many crabs are in the tank? What size are they?
10 (not including the three dead), all but the 2 Strawberries are small-med.
16. How deep is the substrate? 2-6+ inches

17. If you take your hermies out daily to exercise, do you mist their gill area first? Yes

18. Has there been any cleaners, paints, perfumes, air fresheners, candles, or smoking near the crabitat? Now that I think of it, there was an air freshener within 10 feet of it. But both tanks have a glass covering.

19. How often do you clean/sterilize and how? Usually clean it every two months or so, hard though, with molting/digging crabbies!

20. Any unusual odors? only with the three

21. Do you use sponges? Are they rinsed daily with dechlor water? Are they exchanged every 2 days for a sterile one? Yes

22. Do you feed fresh food? When do you remove it? every day

23. Are your hands clean before handling? yes

24. Has there been anything new added to your crabitat recently? the FB


Okay, so I have lost three, all seemed like they were molting. Two were in the ISO tank, and the other was in the main tank. Leia went first, and I may have aided her along. I saw that she was not moving but wasn't falling out and didnt smell. I did handle her for a while to see if I could get some reaction. after 3 days the smell was there and she fell right out. Zoidberg was found this morning. He had been buried in the ISO near the heater, and I saw what seemed to be his exo, but my fiancee picked him up this morning and noticed the smell and that he had broken in two. Then Junior had come back up and was on the sponge, we moved him to the main tank since he looked bigger, and this afternoon he slid right out of his shell, smelling. He was moving slightly earlier tho. All were from the same pet store, but it's odd that they all died around the same time. I have had 2 successful molts in the ISO recently, and so I am wondering if you all can think of any possible causes of death.

Matt

Your humidity seems a little on the high side, especially with the guages being at the top of your crabitat. The humidity & temp might actually be higher than that where the crabbies are. Try lowering your guages to their level so you can get a more accurate reading where they are at & then try to adjust your temp & humidity to around 80 or even a little lower depending on the species of crabs you have.

Good luck & keep us updated.

It honestly could've been anything that killed your hermies. The petstore thing, the molts, the fb, who knows? So dont' beat yourself up about it or anything.
But it's definitely a good time to work on your husbandry.
Diet should be a #1 priority with these guys aside from crabitat conditions. The wording of your diet makes it sound like your using a commercial diet. Although they may not be responsible for causing death directly, they can cause problems that lead to death, ex. molting (depending exactly what you are feeding).
If it's just not practical for you to switch to an all natural diet, try adding things to the diet, like freeze dried shrimp, krill, worms, etc for protein, dried or fresh fruits, sea vegetables, or any of the all natural kibble that a few of our HCA members are making up.
The humidity is also a concern because mold grows everywhere, (including sand,fb, and sponges) and sometimes you might not even see it. So just be careful how high you let it get in there. And if you don't really need the sponges for humidity, I'd take em out because the tend to harbor mold and things.
Those are just a few suggestions on how you could improve. But some of these little guys are so sensitive especially during a molt, there's probably nothing you could do to help them.

click here to read about commercial crab foods - click here for a list of hermie safe 'human foods' - I reccomend an all natural diet. many members here, including myself, can tell you that coloraitona dn overall crab health has improved since we started on all natural diets! often times preservative filled hermie foods don't provdie enough protien, vitamin and minerals etc that are needed.

Sometimes bad salt water mixes can cause bad molts... what type of mix do you use?

Using the Instaocean and following the directions closely.

Some pet stores sell a digital therm that you can stick into the substrate and temps from. I did see it in the Hermit crab section of Pet discounters. Another idea that could work, though I'm not sure- I want to test this out- would be to take a digital thermometer that could be used in the mouth or rectally and try that in the substrate- obviously don't use it again for yourself or your kids! You wouldn't be able to monitor it constantly, but then you could check it when you clean the food and water every day. Only thing is that might not read anything but too low. I'll have to try it out if I can find my extra later on today. If it works I'll let you all know.

Hi Matt,

Out of curiousity,when you first set up your tat,did you rinse out the playsand with running water(until clear),then dry the sand and bake it?
Also,when you added the fb to your tat,did it seem ok? No strange smells or anything?

I am asking these questions because it sounds like there may be a bacterial problem in the tat.
Also I agree that the gauges need to be set lower. I have found this out myself,if the humidity gauge is near the top of the tat,it will read about 70%,and if it is about 2/3 inches from the bottom of tat, will read 80%.
Big difference

maybe its the change of weather. its gotten pretty hot over the last few weeks. ive also seen something like this before with someone who just changed their substrate to fb.

I actually had a lot of deaths like that before I switched to an all-natural food diet. I think there's something in the commercial food that does that to them.

there is, EQ! Ethoxyquin= http://www.crabbytalk.com/?p=95

-JB

Yeah, I knew about Ethoxyquin, and I avoided foods with it, but I still had problems. I also avoided Copper and other heavy metals, and yet, there were still more unexplained deaths than I preferred. I think there's something else that hasn't been identified yet.