New to Hermies and the Forum

[Guest]

Sometimes my crabs look ashy like that because of the sand, though it could be an upcoming molt as well. It's hard to tell sometimes. Welcome to the HCA!

[DragonTear]

Well I don't know exactly what you mean by "fingernails" but I looked at her legs and on the front two she has little "spikes" or "prongs" to help her climb I suppose and they are black but the actual tips of her legs aren't. Please let me know what you think.

Oh and again if anyone can think of why pics/images/buttons aren't showing up for me on this site anymore (they did up until yesterday around the time I uploaded the pics of Ginny which is why I haven't finished posting the rest) please let me know!

Thanks Everyone!

[DragonTear]

Ok so I got worried when it was suggested that Ginny might be pre-molt so I took her out to quickly inspect her exo. She was pretty crabby (if you'll excuse the overused pun) and somewhat agressive (really digging into my hand with her legs, pushing away while I was trying to look at her). I noticed some white spots on her back legs that are not sand and I wiped at them and they seem to be part of her coloring now. They are very small patches (one about the size of a pin's head, the other maybe two). Is this a normal part of a hermie getting "ashy" or preparing to molt?

Well at any rate I figured better safe than sorry especially after the white patches of exo and her behavior change (also she had been sitting in the dry food dish more frequently than usual, and although I didn't notice her "tanking up" on water, she could have easily done this in the middle of the night so she may have been storing food and water. I didn't notice a "bubble" on her abdomen but I've read it can be hard to spot) and I set up my ISO and put her in it last night. I put a towel over the ISO so she would have darkness but I peeked in on her about an hour after I placed her in the ISO and she was digging (neither of them have really dug at all since I got them). This morning I peeked in on her and the water dish and food dish were tipped over and full of sand and she had dug all around the ISO. Now she is totally submerged in one corner but I can't see at all what is going on because the side of the ISO is all sandy in her "tunnel."

I assume that she is molting but she could be de-stressing due to being put in the ISO (which is small and is a BIG change from the nice crabitat we set up for her...and she's away from Hermione of course.) I guess.

Well anyway, I am letting nature take it's course and leaving her be until she comes up either de-stressed or with a shiny new exo. I took out her food dish and her water dish but I left a dechlorinated-water-soaked sea sponge in the tank for humidity purposes. I am going to be peeking in on her about every 6-8 hours to see if she has re-emerged (I am afraid if she is just de-stressing and she comes back up I may miss it and then there will be no food for her and I want to ger her back in with Hermione as soon as she is able.

In the meantime Hermione is all alone in the big tank so I was thinking that if Ginny is dug in for awhile (more than a week) that I might get her a new tank-mate, just to ease the lonliness (there is room for 3 crabbies in the main tank so when Ginny comes back there won't be space issues).

So if anyone has any opinions or advice (I've been reading up on molting on this site and others) please let me know, but otherwise it's really no emergency or anything because I am just going to let her do what she needs to do.

Thanks everyone for reading another really long post from me!

[DragonTear]

I came back from a meeting and peeked in on Ginny to see how she was doing. She was hanging upside down from the top of the ISO!! I took her out and gently bathed her to get the excess sand off of her from all the digging. There's no way she could have molted, rested, ate her exo and hardened in one night but she is now much more vibrantly colored. I am so confused. Do hermies sometimes change color without molting? Her BP is now REALLY purple and her back legs are more red. The white spot is still on one of her legs, but the other is gone. I have pics I will post later whenI have time...maybe you guys can tell me what you think.

[annopia]

Its possible that Ginny molted before you got her...and while in your care her exo has been hardening and her color deepening.

Caroline

[DragonTear]

Thanks! That must be it.

[Guest]

Or is she more brightly-colored because you bathed her? Being wet makes things look different. If you don't see the black legtips, then she hasn't freshly molted.