HCA: Hermit Crab Association

after alot of reserch into bathing, iits obviose many are for/againsed it. i
have been looking deeper into it and i have found it may stress the crabs out beccause it "blindes them" (this is probably already known, but maybe newbies should know). during a bath, all my crabs go nuts. they run around, try to get out and bang there shells on the side of the bowl. so, i stoped bathing them. so, i desided, if they needed a bath, id pop them into the salt water dish, so they can get out esily. after looking closely, i noticed the crabs would do there best to keep there antenna above the water. my idea is, that when a crab is put into deep water, the water interfeers with there senses. they can not smell potential predators, or build up an image of there soroundings through vibrations. once the crab is taken out of the water, you will notice the crabs first priority is to cleen its antenna. when they bath themselves, they can controll how deep they can go, but if they are bathed by a human, they have no choice, and this may result in theem becomeing stressed as they think it is an attack.

just a theory, so correct any errors if you see any.

brad

Interesting theory! It makes sense. I stopped bathing my crabs a while back, except when I get a new one and bathe them all, but I don't make it so deep that they are submerged....

I havent been bathing my old crabs, just the newbies due to the conditions I usually get them from. You'd be surprised the dirt and stuff that comes out of there shells in a bath

well, new crabs is understandable, just incase thay have mites and such

I have never bathed crabs except when I do a deep clean about every 5-6 months.

I can understand bathing new guys, anyone who has molted and anyone who (heaven forbid) happens to get anything nasty on them (chemicals, mites, etc.), but I wouldn't bathe my healthy crabs. If they feel they need to, they'll go to the pool and do it themselves. I've only had my crabs a little while and have already observed two of them bathing themselves. I figure I'll just let them do their own thing. They know what is best for them.

The only problem with the theory, is it is based on humans making them have a bath. But hermies do actually bath themselves, and occasionally fully submerse their antennae and eyes and do not panic at all. I think what the hermie may be worried about is if somebody is doing this to them, they may be afraid it is a predator, possible taking them underwater.

Couldn't this topic be posted in a more polite way without the cussing?

When I do a deep clean, I put all crabs in a large container with salt water.
I set it on an angle with plastic canvas in the bottom, easy to get into and out of the water, pieces of drift wood for them to climb on. They can choose to go into the water and most of them do. I don't consider this a "bath". It's a holding area while I change their home, then they go crazy for a couple of days with introduced to the change.

I do "bath" new crabs, in salt water and also place them in the salt water pool of the tank, this seems to help with the intro.

Did I miss something? I don't see any cussing!

The title says "screw". It could be better said as "mess".

hmm, screw isnt a bad word in the uk. sorry. a crab that bathes itself is confident it is safe, so it will not mind submerging its antenna, but if a human tputs it in the water it feels defencless

It's not necessarily a bad word in Canada, either, but it isn't a nice word. For example, I would never use it in the presence of my roommates son, but I'll say it more readily in mature conversation than other alternatives. Mind you, most of my cussing isn't in English. lol

Thanks Brad
See, the particular word you used isn't really cussing per se, but more a borderline word, it's not a nice word, but in different countries it'd be more or less offensive. I didn't wish to come across as being picky but am glad you changed it.

I've only bathed our crabs once since we had them. After reading so much contradictory information I decided to let them take one on their own in the water bowls if they want to.