Should I start ISO'ing molters?

Hermiearth · Post by **Hermiearth** » Sat Feb 04, 2017 2:49 am

Hi all, so I have heard a few owners on here who have talked about isolating there molters. Can someone give me the info on this- benefits, how to tell if a crabs about to go down, and how to ISO? I have some spare tanks sitting around and if it has clear benefits I will do it- another thing is that I own 20 crabs so it would be hard for me to remember who is digging each and every night (unless someone has a good way to do this) Thanks!

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daws409 · Post by **daws409** » Sat Feb 04, 2017 7:56 am

I personally don't ISO my molters unless its an emergency such as surface molting. (Only happened once in the 6 yrs I've been crabbing.) Molting is stressful enough. Moving them adds more stress.

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Kermie16 · Post by **Kermie16** » Sat Feb 04, 2017 8:30 am

daws409 wrote:I personally don't ISO my molters unless its an emergency such as surface molting. (Only happened once in the 6 yrs I've been crabbing.) Molting is stressful enough. Moving them adds more stress.

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I agree with daws409. I don't ISO molters either. Only ISO for emergencies. I have ISO's ready but, knock on wood, have not had to use them:) U said u have 20 hermies? I'm curious how big ur tank is. I love looking at large tanks and the set ups! I can only dream of having a large tank. I have my max size at 55g. Going any larger would make it physically difficult for me to manage.

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YouTube · Post by **GotButterflies** » Sat Feb 04, 2017 11:28 am

I do not ISO my molters either

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Hermiearth · Post by **Hermiearth** » Sat Feb 04, 2017 12:49 pm

Kermie16 wrote:
daws409 wrote:I personally don't ISO my molters unless its an emergency such as surface molting. (Only happened once in the 6 yrs I've been crabbing.) Molting is stressful enough. Moving them adds more stress.

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I agree with daws409. I don't ISO molters either. Only ISO for emergencies. I have ISO's ready but, knock on wood, have not had to use them:) U said u have 20 hermies? I'm curious how big ur tank is. I love looking at large tanks and the set ups! I can only dream of having a large tank. I have my max size at 55g. Going any larger would make it physically difficult for me to manage.

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I actually only have a long 60 gal! I currently have 14 of my 20 crabs in it. The rest are underground in my old tank that I upgraded from. Turns out my crabs aren't as big as I thought (my "jumbos" are actually mediums) so I have 2 mediums, 4 tiny,s, and 8 smalls in the tank currently. I was told I was overcrowded but I did the math and turns out I am only using 31gals of available space but I am not planning on adding crabs anytime soon (:
Here's some pics of my tank if you are interested:

And I got this tank plus the stand and glass lid for 50 bucks!!

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Hermiearth · Post by **Hermiearth** » Sat Feb 04, 2017 12:50 pm

So I guess I won't ISO molters than- but I do have a set up in case of emergencies! Thanks all!

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Kermie16 · Post by **Kermie16** » Sat Feb 04, 2017 10:52 pm

Wow! Great set up! Love all the wood pieces in there! Glad we could help

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Rawrgeous · Post by **Rawrgeous** » Sun Feb 05, 2017 12:54 am

Moving a crab to iso that is about to molt can actually cause the crab to hold off molting because of the stress of changing environment. This is partially why people moved to in- tank molting. Plus, imo it provides a more "authentic" living situation for them since they aren't being touched and moved often by humans.

LadyJinglyJones · Post by **LadyJinglyJones** » Sun Feb 05, 2017 1:21 am

I had the impression that ISO'ing molters was something that used to be recommended, but has fallen out of favor for reasons mentioned above. Yes?

Rawrgeous · Post by **Rawrgeous** » Sun Feb 05, 2017 1:59 am

That, and crabbing has just evolved in general over the years, partially from experience, and experimentation, and partially because most crab care is word of mouth as there isn't much concrete scientific evidence. (Which is why every group has it's own guidelines/ expectations.) But most of the major crab groups do stem from the orignal yahoo group started by crabloverdon, which is where you see a lot of similarities as well. It really is one gigantic trial and error experiment.
Anywho, at one point surface molts where considered normal. You would iso your crab when they showed signs of a molt coming on. (We all know how difficult it can be to tell!) The crab would be quarantined, and blocked off from other crabs, and left to molt, eat their exo, and harden before going back to general population. When you think about it, it almost seems impossible, as you would constantly be switching crabs to and from iso, and surface molting repeatedly can't be good for them. That being said: it was much better that they actually got an opportunity to molt at all given they where in captivity and little to no info was known about them, let alone setting up for them to molt. But I'm not sure when exactly people realized that their crabs could molt in tank and be just fine. I think it was once people began to take a look at how wild hermits molted, and realized that they could bury themselves in an actual tank if the sub was deep enough- but that's just conjecture.

LadyJinglyJones · Post by **LadyJinglyJones** » Sun Feb 05, 2017 2:06 am

Thanks so much for the history! I'm super interested in the roots of our community - crabbing seems so wild west sometimes.... it's crazy when you think of the state of science, and then consider the very basic things we don't know about our pets!

Hermiearth · Post by **Hermiearth** » Sun Feb 05, 2017 2:11 am

That was really interesting! It's super exiting to be part of such a rapidly developing community- slowly but surely we are chipping away at the misconceptions people have about hermits leading them to living in horrid conditions.

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Rawrgeous · Post by **Rawrgeous** » Sun Feb 05, 2017 2:17 am

If you get on crabstreetjournal, and search crablover don there is a small excerpt from some of his posts on molting. I definitely feel like groups like this have helped hermies everywhere, even if we all have slightly different care ideals.

Kermie16 · Post by **Kermie16** » Sun Feb 05, 2017 9:11 am

Love everything I have learned from all of the experienced crabbers! Priceless! Thanks for sharing, Rawrgeous

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Rawrgeous · Post by **Rawrgeous** » Sun Feb 05, 2017 9:14 am

Kermie16 wrote:Love everything I have learned from all of the experienced crabbers! Priceless! Thanks for sharing, Rawrgeous

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You are very welcome.

I literally have COMBED the internet for traces of the old group simply because I am so fascinated with all the old ways/ evolution of care. I've pulled up more, but I'm not totally sure how to find it all again. haha It was lots of googling and website searching. XD

HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Should I start ISO'ing molters?

Should I start ISO'ing molters?

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