Died of Stress?

[bridgettbiologist]

Hi y'all.

I'm pretty sure I've got a dead crab on my hands. I purchased it two weeks ago and now it seems limp, there's a slight odor, and it doesn't pinch things in it's big claw. Are these the signs of death?

When I brought it home, I bathed it with my old crab in salt water, put them into my 10 gal, and left them alone. My old crab didn't really bother the new one, but the new crab wasn't curious about anything and mostly stayed in it's shell the whole two weeks. Is this PPS, or did I do something wrong?

[crabs_lex]

you can go to the emergency section and fill out the form if you would like the we would be able to understand your tank conditions and maybe why this happened
also it is possible it could have been PPS all of these crabs have been caught and taken from the natural homes and they go through so much
they get so easily stressed
so once a crabs molts with you for the first time they are pretty much cleared of PPS i believe

[curlysister]

It is most likely PPS, if you have only had the crab for two weeks.
The other option is that it might be preparing to surface molt. A dead crab will smell terrible eventually.

THis might be helpful:
http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... 23&t=92522

[HermitCrabCHICA]

I have a question. My Kelpcake died shortest after she/he molted. Why did Kelpcake die? I don't get what I did wrong. I thought after molting my hermie is free of PPS what happened to her/him?

[curlysister]

But your crab did not have a normal molt - it molted on the surface and did not eat it's exo.
Have you read through the care sheet that explains PPS?
I also offered some suggestions for improvements when you posted the answers to the emergency template.

[HermitCrabCHICA]

it molted underground and never ate the exo. Kelpcake was acting normally I don't know what happened. I guess PPS was just to much for her/him. I just read the forum on PPS. I feel bad for all of those little hermies.