Mass molt?
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Guest
Topic author
Mass molt?
My husband has called me at work and said that Oddish, Gizmo, and Orlando are no where to be found. Only Lestat is above ground. It also looks like they’ve ALL buried themselves in the repti-bark, rather than the sand. Since they were all above ground around 7pm last night, and only Oddish and Orlando were down this morning, I’m guessing they haven’t started to molt yet? I’m not sure, but I’m worried about them trying to molt in the repti-bark. Should I leave them to it? Or should I dig them up and replace all the repti-bark with sand for them to re-burry themselves with. I don’t know if the stress of me doing that would be worse than trying to let them molt (if they’re even molting) in the bark? Any advice would be great! I’ll be leaving work in a couple of hours with no access to the internet… and I don’t want to leave them under longer if I should take them out (did that part make sense?)
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troppo
Topic author
Hi Beckers 
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I would say to leave the crabs be.
Crabs don't normally molt that fast.
Some do,but the usual way with crabs and molting is that they start showing PMS(pre molting signs) first,then after weeks,bury themselves and then maybe overnight,usually longer than that (perhaps weeks or months),they molt.
Your crabs could be buried down to sleep or destress as well. It's just normal crabbie behaviour to bury down.
When one of your crabs does go down to molt,they will instinctively choose the best spot to molt if they are in good health at the time.
,I would say to leave the crabs be.
Crabs don't normally molt that fast.
Some do,but the usual way with crabs and molting is that they start showing PMS(pre molting signs) first,then after weeks,bury themselves and then maybe overnight,usually longer than that (perhaps weeks or months),they molt.
Your crabs could be buried down to sleep or destress as well. It's just normal crabbie behaviour to bury down.
When one of your crabs does go down to molt,they will instinctively choose the best spot to molt if they are in good health at the time.
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Guest
Topic author
When I got home last night I noticed Oddish wasn’t really buried, he was just hiding a bit. Gizmo was up, but he was about to dig down again. I was just going to leave them, since now it was only Orlando down, de-stressing… but then I lifted the water dish out… There was a bunch of mold on the bark under it! My husband deals with the water, so I never noticed. He’s terribly aloof, and rarely notices anything (he left the oven on all last night, I could kill him, I’ve had a horrible evening / morning, but if I was to talk about that it would need to go somewhere else!)
The bark hadn’t been in there all that long, so I was a little surprised at the mold already, but then again it was under the water dish. We took them all out, disturbing poor Orlando. I hope it didn’t bother him too much. We dumped out everything, sand and all and just threw it out. We put down a layer of gravel. I read somewhere in another thread about the stagnant water at the bottom, and we’ve got the gravel, so I decided to just set it up right then. New sand… no bark. I’m going to put more bark back in another day, but I’m going to put it in a separate container so I don’t have to change the sand every time I change the bark.
Orlando spent about 3 hours cleaning Gizmo’s old shell, but now he is still in his original shell and is back down de-stressing, everybody else is up and loving it. They’re being really active. This morning when I woke up Gizmo had changed shells AGAIN. Yesterday we added another snail shell of another snail that had just recently died and come out of his shell and Gizmo was in that one. He loves the snail shells. I had the fortunate opportunity this morning to see Gizmo come out of the newer snail shell and go back into his first choice! That’s the first time I’ve seen it. Very exciting.
I think (and hope) Orlando will be okay. He didn’t seem upset and burry himself quickly again, he spent hours cleaning a shell… I just couldn’t leave it knowing there was mold.
The bark hadn’t been in there all that long, so I was a little surprised at the mold already, but then again it was under the water dish. We took them all out, disturbing poor Orlando. I hope it didn’t bother him too much. We dumped out everything, sand and all and just threw it out. We put down a layer of gravel. I read somewhere in another thread about the stagnant water at the bottom, and we’ve got the gravel, so I decided to just set it up right then. New sand… no bark. I’m going to put more bark back in another day, but I’m going to put it in a separate container so I don’t have to change the sand every time I change the bark.
Orlando spent about 3 hours cleaning Gizmo’s old shell, but now he is still in his original shell and is back down de-stressing, everybody else is up and loving it. They’re being really active. This morning when I woke up Gizmo had changed shells AGAIN. Yesterday we added another snail shell of another snail that had just recently died and come out of his shell and Gizmo was in that one. He loves the snail shells. I had the fortunate opportunity this morning to see Gizmo come out of the newer snail shell and go back into his first choice! That’s the first time I’ve seen it. Very exciting.
I think (and hope) Orlando will be okay. He didn’t seem upset and burry himself quickly again, he spent hours cleaning a shell… I just couldn’t leave it knowing there was mold.
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cranlsn
Topic author
I would think in this case you made the right choice. Based on their behavior they don't sound too stressed out. The mold on the other hand could have led to a bacteria problem, and they are very vulnerable to bacteria after they've molted (the soft body and all).
Gizmo sounds cute...I love when they change shells!
The mold on the other hand could have led to a bacteria problem, and they are very vulnerable to bacteria after they've molted (the soft body and all).Gizmo sounds cute...I love when they change shells!
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Guest
Topic author
Good to hear! Once I saw the mold I felt it wasn't an issue of if I should or not anymore. I knew they would probably get sick if they molted in a tank with mold! I scolded my husband on not noticing, but I should know better than to expect him to notice anything, so I guess I should be scolding myself!