HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I've been away for a week, my mother has been careing for my crabs.
I came home to find little to no night activity.. and all my PPs (in a seperate tank) seem to be having problems... one seems a little deformed (doesn't fit in his shell properly folded) the others all seem to have nasty sores, similar to the spots on an old banana.
I just moved back home with the crabs... and the water they did have came straight from a remote lake (where I work in the summer) there were no problems... now I use the same bottled water I used when I first got my crabs and never had a problem.... is it the water? Or food? I bought spirolina disks as well as little dried shrimp, and dried shrimp cubes as new treats before I left.... what is causeing this problem?
Should I clean out the tank and start over? I go to Ireland on Wednesday and won't be back for a month... I'm so worried.. I already had 2 E's die this summer... now I seem to have 4 sick PPs!

*edit- I felt this post had merit for archiving even though it is unresolved because it describes what we have learned to recognize as "Shell Rot"...this is a fungus that attacks the exoskeleton of different crustacae...it is thought to be related also to heavy metal poisoning in that a crab suffering from poisoning cannot withstand the virus due to a weakened immune system!...if your crab has anything like this, ISOLATE him immediately! It can be contageous. Post in emergency forum...-CM

the only things I've found was that a few people had the same problem... thing is someone mentioned bruiseing... it is NOT bruiseing... this is a sore, like if you had an open wound.. it's not open but it is effecting the outer layer of the BP.... it's rather scary!
I've desided to give them all a stresscoat saltwater bath... I bought declor/meneral remover (although I've never needed to before) so I guess we'll see but this seems to be a problem that is going on here... and seems pretty common... I guess we'll see if it is metels or minerals in the water.... but any other help would be great!!

hmm i have never heard of this before but maybe you can scientificaly rule out possabi;ities. First i would clean the tank everything goes or gets boiled. if there is anything new in the tack (plants,, climbing stuff) don't put it back. maybe they are a:alergic to it b: benn rubing on it. hmmm i wonder if ornocycaline would be harmful to them, its soo hard to give antibiotics to crustatioans. anyways sorry i can't be of more help

this sounds similar to shell rot...a bacteria that eats away at the exo of your crabs. It will look like brown spots, like holes in the exo... c.c I don't know if this is the case for you, but I believe a deep clean of your tank is in order.

How is the humidity? Do you have any other black spots, like black mold in the tank? Also, do you have salt water available for them to wade through?

Check to be sure the water you are giving them is definately dechlorinated and fresh.

Other than that, I suggested some time ago that someone who thought they had shell rot in their community try the antibiotics that are available to fish keepers. They dissolve the capsule contents in the water and dip the fish in there. This is only for a serious infection and probably won't keep your crabs from dying if it is shell rot but anything is worth a try sometimes.

I'm sorry you didn't get answers right away. Sometimes it's because we're don't have an answer and are afraid to lead you wrong. That can be even worse.

I found a few older posts in my search.. one said "does it look like this?" to someone else who had the problem and gave a link to the LHC site... the thread was no longer there but there was a few mentions of it...

I took apart and cleaned everything last night, they have always had salt water, but I did find out that we switched our bottled water company!!! This is a problem that just started this week so it must be from that... anyway I've always had declor. water but never needed to remove metals and such.. I think it has to be that, but I changed and washed everything, gave everyone (even the ones who aren't sick) a saltwater/stress coat bath...

No one was active last night, there was very little eaten (although I gave them 7 choices of food)
I've had my crabs since Feb and never had a problem... darn! I hate when stuff happends right when I'm about to go away, I was worried about leaving them to begin with... now this!!!