Blueberry Questions!!!

[mom23]

Do Blues come in other colors besides the bluish/purple color? Or maybe my question should be does the color turn as the grow bigger? Some that I have are brown with like a hint of blue here and there. I don't have many good pics yet as I'm trying not to disturb them. They had a very stressful journey. They got LOST in the mail! I'm praying they can recover from that.


I'm also currently in the process of my least favorite part of crabbing. Heat! Are there any blue owners out there that can tell me what temp they prefer? My issue seems to be that with the ultratherm and just UVB light I can keep the tank at 79.7 at substrate but it's high 80's up top and mid 80's in the middle. Is that too cold at substrate level? If I use CFL's with the UVB it gets really hot up top like high 90's. Substrate about 81. Then at night if I use 2 15 watt moon glow bulbs it's 80-81 at substrate and high 80's up top. So it's a bit warmer at night! If I use 1 15 watt moon glow bulb the substrate level is 79 and mid 80's up top. I could try 1 25 watt and see what happens? I just hate that the bulb is more to one side of the tank than the other but the hood is set up to run 2 bulbs on each side. Any thoughts?

THANKS!

[Curlz]

There are pictures in the net where it is known if they are purpureus or rugosus or other species.

rugosus got more than 5 riffles on their big claw. Normally 7.
And the have dark parts at the bottom in their eyestalks. Like the hermit on the last picture.
The first part of their outer antenna pair are orange-brown.


hm I only saw some adult C. purpureus and the were all blue-purple with white. (mine are very small and do not have the adult colors)
Adult one can have purpe-blueish parts in their eyestaks. But mostly they are white. Underneath the eyes are an orange stripe (like eyeliner)
The only have up to 5 riffle on their big claw.
And their first antenna parts are normally the coloured like their body.

At Tony Coenobita page you can check and compare the things:
rugosus http://www.tonycoenobita.com/species_rugosus_eng2.htm
purpureus http://www.tonycoenobita.com/species_purpureus_eng2.htm

when you picture google "land hermit singapore" you can see some hermits that might by purpureus which have not the typical 'points'....
maybe I could help a little bit

[mom23]

The second and third picture are the same crab. I am concerned that I have been sent some ruggies instead of blues. I'm not very good at telling them apart. The one in the second and third pic doesn't look very blue. He is bigger than any of the ruggies I have. I think of the 5 I have 3 have a bluish hue and the small ones are a mix of white and a grayish purple.

[mom23]

Well the brown guy doesn't have white joints.

[crabbienewb]

my smaller ones look like the first picture, but my smaller ones are mediums not sure what size yours are. my larger ones look like this


All mine have the orange joints and orange feelers. and all of them have black under their eyes like ruggies do


one is more of a lavender blue and i dont have a good pic of him because i never took him out of my tank. i could post more pictures but it won't show their color well because inside the tank at night when they are usually out they just show up looking greyish in pics.

[mom23]

I have 5 and I think they are all medium. 3 small mediums or larger smalls and 2 definitely medium. I pulled the brown one out and he's a purple brown. Just dark. I sent pics to Wode and she said Blue. Yay. I guess I'd always seen the shade like in the first picture. I love the brown/purple one! He's the only one out and about. 2 have dug down. Hopefully for molts. The one in the first pic is in iso. I have 1 missing 2 legs and 1 missing a BP. I knew they were coming like that. I told her I'd try to save them. She was running out and I was going to end up with none. The smallest is hiding. They aren't doing so great but it's only been a few days. They had a rough journey and I'm praying they can get over the stress of it.

[kuza]

yes they can be very brownish, mine were a range of light blue, purple anddirty bluish brown.

[crabbienewb]

if you look at the legs of my bigger ones you can see that they have spots where they either were darker, or could be going darker. it's more purple areas within their blue.

have yours dug all the way in? none of mine are under yet, but they all dig in just enough to cover them to where i an see the tops of their shells. they've been doing this every day, no one sits out anywhere visible while they are sleeping or whatever they are doing during the day.

Some suggestions on food that I've had the best luck with, they eat all the scallops i will put in there, and the squid, never any left of either of those, and i had king crab legs and gave them a bunch and they really liked that as well. and of course honey. they've been way bigger on eating seafood than my pp's and e's. I could hear them from across the house when they were cracking open the king crab legs, and they ate the meat, and they ate the pieces that i cooked off the extra meat and left just exo for them.

I've been keeping my tank at 85, and i try to keep the humidity at 85 but honestly they seem a lot more active when it's higher, when i put the fogger on and the 2=3 hrs or so after while it's at 96 and slowly drops back down to 85 they are the most active. and they sit under my moss pit when they dig in to sleep, which is the most humid part of my tank other than being right in the moss pit

[mom23]

I have 2 that have dug completely under. It's only been 3 days so I'm not 100% sure they won't pop back up. 1 is under in iso and the biggest is under in the main tank. I hope they are molting and not just de-stressing. The first couple of days they did half bury themselves like that. Now 2 hide but relatively out in the open. I'm kind of worried about those 2. 1 is in iso and 1 is in the main tank. I'm praying pps doesn't take them. 1 is pretty active day and night and doesn't hide. It's a female. She's in the salt water right now. She still runs from me but is out day and night.


I'm still working on the heat. I think it's going to have to stay like it is. In the coolest part of the substrate level farthest from the lights and UTH it reads 79 with my heat gun. The rest of the substrate area is 80-83. Then as you go up it ranges from high 80's to mid 90's. Only the one active one has done any exploring. The other just sits. . I'd like to warm up the substrate level some but I can't without totally frying the top. I figure it gives them a good variance and I don't think 79 will be a problem since it's just a couple of shaded spots. Thought?

The humidity is around 88% at sub level. Of course it decreases as you go up towards the lights, but it does this in all of my tanks and they all hang out at the top so it must be ok.

I've only seen the active one eat and the one up in iso. The small one is hopefully eating at night. They don't seem picky and have been chowing on stuff, especially fresh food and nuts. All of my crabs love nuts.

[crabbienewb]

My tank has the same varient on temps. they've dug a trench that all 6 blues and 2 straws fit in together, and the temp in that corner is 90, but they also have a trench under the cave in the front of the tank that is 78, and they sometimes are sitting in the hot trench and sometimes in the cooler one, and now in the moss pit but they took a long time before they went up there. none of mine climbed for at least two weeks, other than to go to the shell shop but onyl 1 or two went up there for a while, and then when i put fresh food on the upper platform they started climbing up there, and i didn't put any there yesterday or today and they didn't bother climbing again. they seem to move around the tank to sit where they want to not really just sitting in one area, i wanted to get my temp the same throughout the tank but seeing they aren't staying in only one area i really don't know what they prefer, they sit in these holes they dug but not always the same one, they've got about 4 holes they switch up sitting in and they use each others, each hole they dug fits multiple crabs. they have two big trench things in the warmer corner and two by the glass which is cooler. the first few days i had them they stayed in the warm corner under the moss pit, but i think it was more because it was dark and seemed safe.

I lost 1 within a week of getting them, but i posted the pic and you can see there was some kind of open wound that looked infected. the one i lost wasn't hte one i expected to lose, one of mine was very lethargic and when i put him in the tank, 24 hrs later he was still in the same spot in the same position, but he's doing ok now he did i think destress since he sat in one of the holes for about a week.

[Curlz]

hm in my opinion this is a C. rugosus. Because:
The first antenna parts are orange/brownish.
The dark party at the underside of the eyestalks.
And I count more than 5 riffles at the big claws.

But I am not sure.

[mom23]

Which one are you talking about?

[wodesorel]

You have ruggies, right? Make a photo shoot with the two of them together and focus on body shape, eyes, and claws. That right there should show if they are the same species or different!

[mom23]

Im not sure if she was talking about my photo or not?

I do have ruggies. They are much smaller. I don't want to cause anymore stress to the *blues* right now so I don't think I'll get pictures right away. Unless you think I could safely pick up the one active one. The ruggies won't like it either. I don't handle them.

[mom23]

But I guess I should figure it out if we all think we have blues and we don't.