Horrible! Rotting dead E!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Dec 27, 2006 10:15 pm

I went over to the hermit crab tank and smelled dead fish, obviously my first thought was "Uh oh, someone died". Well I looked around a little until I decided to life a plastic cave to discover a ROTTING corpse of an E that died a long time ago. I seriously think I just appeared. I used a shell to move the body when I noticed that the abdomen was completly gone, and where he was found was a white spot which I assumed was the abdomen. what it was was a pile of MAGGOTS. That's when I realized that the fruit flies that I have ocassionally seen must have bred and layed their eggs. Honestly it's horrible. the dead corpse had no shell near it but I think it was poor Tank. He was my third hermit crab when I started doing this right, after Stumpy and Rocky, who died a long time ago. He would have been alive in my tank for one year and two months. I think somebody took his shell, but I don't know. I saw someone in his shell that looked a lot like him (he and the crab in the shell were Es) but much smaller. The thing is I have no hermit crabs his size who are also Es, other than Coconut. I then found Coconut in his shell, completly fine. I have no Idea what killed him, but I am not even sure it is Tank. All I know is that a Deep Clean is a MUST. I have been asking somebody to take me to Home Depot to get some sand for so long, and this is what happens when you procrastinate. Disaster. Poor Tank. Maybe if they got the sand I could have deep cleaned the tank, found Tank naked, and put him in a new shell. At least now with this dead corpse I will be able to go, but the damage is already done...

1. Substrate used?
Forest bedding with Sand.

2. Humidity % level in crabitat?
That humidity gauge has condensation on the inside of it so it's going to say 100% even if the humidity was 50% on the outside. I have another gauge and it says it's 75%

3. Temperature of substrate in crabitat?
It's about 75 also, maybe warmer in some places but only by maybe 4 degrees

4. Temperature of crabitat?
Overall it's 75

5. Location of gauges?
Bottom of the tank, on the left side.

6. What is your heat source?
Overhead light and a UTH

7. Types of water available?

Salt and Fresh, I always use Spring water.
8. Dechlorinator used?
If it's not Spring water I always use dechlorinator

9. What do you feed?
Hermit crab treat stuff by FMR (only because there are no preservatives), freeze dried, bloodworms, spirulina powder, and flax seeds.

10. How long have you had the crab in question?
One year and two months.

11. Do you know the species?
E

12. Do you bath them, if so how often and with what?

They can do it themselves

13. What type of housing are they in? Tank? Plastic box?
Tank

14. What size is your tank?
29 gallons

15. How many crabs are in the tank? What size are they?
12, now 11. I got one large, 2 mediums, the rest are smalls and tinys.

16. How deep is the substrate?
at the maximum it is 5 inches in some places, most places it is 4.

17. If you take your hermies out daily to exercise, do you mist their gill area first? I don't.

18. Has there been any cleaners, paints, perfumes, air fresheners, candles, or smoking near the crabitat?
No.

19. How often do you clean/sterilize and how?
I am going to as soon as someone gets me to the store and realizes how important this is! Last time I did it was in August so I am due for one now!
I'll wash everything, microwave hideouts, bowls, and plastic things, and replace the substrate.

20. Any unusual odors?
Dead fish is all I smell...

21. Do you use sponges? Are they rinsed daily with dechlor water? Are they exchanged every 2 days for a sterile one?
I don't use them.

22. Do you feed fresh food? When do you remove it?
Yes, I remove it after it has been in for two days.

23. Are your hands clean before handling?
Yes.

24. Has there been anything new added to your crabitat recently?
No.

troppo · Post by **troppo** » Thu Dec 28, 2006 6:10 pm

Hi Metalshell, sorry for your loss,it must have been awful to find your crabby in that condition

Would you have an ISO set up at all? Maybe you could put the crabbies in there while you deepclean.
I've used a mixture of sand and ee before and I wash it all in a bucket using a running hose. The ee will float to the surface,but you should be able to save the sand. Just be sure to throw away the area where the dead crabby was laying,because even if that small area is washed & baked,the smell remains to a degree and will taint the rest of the sand with dead crab smell(it's happened to me before). Then bake on a high heat for about an hour,cool and you know the rest

If you have any spare ee,then you could make it up and add it to the cleaned sand.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 6:11 pm

Hmm, I made a post here, but then it disappeared, then the thread even disapppeared for me. Is the site working okay for everyone? It recently went down for a whole day.

It is far from over yet sadly. I made a long post about what happened, but I'll summarize it. I either found or confirmed 4 hermit crab deaths. All of them were Es. I now have one that is naked. I thought he was dead, but he is close to being dead. A leg has already been dropped. Right now he is surrounded by shells, and I will be ready to iso him if anyone thinks that would be a good thing to do. I am not sure because it may be stress.

The strange thing about this is that this only happened to the Es, but not all of them. The other 4 are fine. I have a PP in that tank who has been alive since october of last year, so I think my conditions are okay. I have no idea why so many died. All of them were not bought at the same time. One I have had for a year, the naked one for close to a year, another was bought eight months ago, and two were bought two months ago. I don't think my conditions would kill them if they stayed in the tank at different times. I have no idea what killed them. Right now my main concern is keeping Coconut alive. Where do I go from here? It's so frustrating though... hermit crabs are not easy pets...right now I regret more than ever that these are imported so much without any way of captive breeding being attempted by these companies. I feel especially sorry for the Straws and ruggies recently added at petco. I don't know if I should get them or not. The tank can now get to 80 and stay there, but I am very discouraged...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 6:56 pm

Definitely weird Metal. I am sorry for your loss. Did these guys have anything in common aside from there species? Were they purchased together from the same place? Can you think of anything?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 7:29 pm

The ones that died came from three different stores. One was a petstore that turned into petco a year ago, where I got Tank, who was the one who first died. The other place I got one was a small pet store that I have been successful with for a while, four Es come from that store, three are alive and well, but Coconut is naked and dying... I have another E from a very very small pet store, and he streaked for a week, but is perfectly healthy now. I think that was just bad PPS.

troppo · Post by **troppo** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 7:37 pm

Very strange Metalshell

I had mass deaths in my tat a few months ago,but it was due to a disease and it ended up wiping out half my tank. Thankfully it's stopped now.
I'm not suggesting that your dead crabs were suffering a disease though.....

With your E's,having they been showing any other symptoms other than dropping limbs and streaking? How long does it take for illness symptoms to appear and then how long until death?
Have you fed them anything new lately and have you calibrated your humidity gauge?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 8:12 pm

What kind of salt do you use?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 9:25 pm

I do believe I calibrated my humidity gauge correctly. It was off a little, but I fixed that I think. As for salt, I use the Doc wellfish salt.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 7:35 am

I don't know if it is the salt or not but recently there has been some debate about the Doc Wellfish/Fresh water Aquarium being good enough for crabs. How I understand what I read is that a lot of the things in sea salt has been taken out. Things that the hermits need.

I'll look for and post the link to what I read.

Here it is:
http://www.crabstreetjournal.com/articl ... fsalt.html

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 3:45 pm

Featherscrabs wrote:I don't know if it is the salt or not but recently there has been some debate about the Doc Wellfish/Fresh water Aquarium being good enough for crabs. How I understand what I read is that a lot of the things in sea salt has been taken out. Things that the hermits need.

I'll look for and post the link to what I read.

Here it is:
http://www.crabstreetjournal.com/articl ... fsalt.html

If salt was the problem, then I wish I knew sooner because he would have gone and struggled so long without having what he needs. The only thing is that some of the crabs were crabs I just bought, so wouldn't they die off too fast just for not getting the right salt? I mean crabs with bad humidity often can survive for up to a few months I think...

I'm still sorry that I overlooked this. On friday I will go to the petstore and get what is right. It's too bad he suffered for so long. As for more hermit crabs, should I get those straws and ruggies before they die off at the store?

troppo · Post by **troppo** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:28 pm

Hi Metalshell,

There's been alot of debate about Doc Wellfish,some people say that it causes no harmful effects at all,and others mention that they have nothing but problems with their crabs when they use it.

http://www.crabstreetjournal.com/module ... pic&t=3618

I think there needs to be more research done on this(maybe a poll),because while it may not harm one variety of crab,it may harm others.

I used Doc Wellfish for a few months changing from using sea water.
With the sea water,there was no probs at all. But I had alot of crab deaths after changing to Doc wellfish, but I'd also fed oysters as well(it was said that they caused disease).
A few months after I stopped feeding oysters,there were still deaths. I went through my tank and on the advice on Ladybug at CSJ I changed from using Doc Wellfish to Coralife marine grade salt. There have been absolutely no deaths or molt deformities since then. It seems too much of a coincidence.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 4:38 pm

Well as soon as I get to the store I will get that, I am so sorry I have overlooked this so long. Sadly Coconut is dead, and the tank smells just as bad as before I cleaned it. I had a lot of fun with coconut, he was the only E who liked to change shells. Only Bubble changed a shell other than him, but that's mainly because he was in a broken one....so for now the important thing is getting the right salt, and maybe those crabs I wanted to get before they die... but they won't replace the poor guys I lost. 5 crabs was one short of half my tank, so I hope the same doesn't happen again.

troppo · Post by **troppo** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 6:21 pm

Hey Metalshell

,

With marine grade salt, it doesn't have to be the same brand as I bought though

I think E's and Aussie crabs must have similar problems,the right kind of salt water is so important.
Ummm,just thought of something...How often do you clean and sterilize your water dishes? This would be important as well if you're having a number of crab deaths.
I know how you feel about rescuing pet store crabs that have been kept in bad conditions,but am not sure it would be a good idea until you get this situation in your tank sorted out,so at least for when you do buy the crabs,they have a fighting chance,even though they're in terrible conditions at pet store

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 11:39 pm

I refill the water about once every other day until it is full, and once a week a wipe and rinse them out to get rid of any sand dragged into it.

Also I got some Instant Ocean, but nobody seems to be attracted to it yet... I'll wait.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 6:21 pm

Unfortunatley one more is now close to death and it is horrible watching. This one little guy who must be suffering from PPS or whatever effected the other crabs is now on the verge of dying. He just molted and dropped three legs, his small claw, and has no shell. The poor guy is squirming in the food dish with his shell next to him. He looks completley dead until he moves his limbs slightly, showing that he looks like he has the will to live. I don't know what caused this, but whatever it did it suceeded... What can I do? I feel so sorry for the poor thing.