WORMS!?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 8:00 pm

I just went to change the food/water dishes in one of my tats and I found little white nematode type WORMS in the water and underneath the food dish! What are they? Are they disease - ridden? How could they have gotten in there I take such good care of my 'tats I hope I don't have to do a complete reclean since I am kind of strapped for time these days respond ASAP please!!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 11:03 pm

Are they tiny? They might be the larvae of some sort of fly or other insect that got into the tat. I would remove the dish and that whole portion of substrate immediately. Boil the dish well before you replace it, and wait to hear back from others. You might need to do a deep clean, but I don't know if it's necessary. The emergency template (a Sticky in this forum) might also help, like blaze said. Hope it works out okay!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 12:37 am

1. Substrate used?
I forgot the brand name but its a type of sand, like a marine type sand only not too fine-grained

2. Humidity % level in crabitat?
was 80% but I lowered it in that tank to 70%

3. Temperature of substrate in crabitat?
No idea

4. Temperature of crabitat?
usually about 70 - 72

5. Location of gauges?
middle of the side wall

6. What is your heat source?
none

7. Types of water available?
dechlorinated water

8. Dechlorinator used?
the kind for using with tropical fish, I use the same stuff for my bettas

9. What do you feed?
commercial and fresh foods (I haven't had problems with the commercial yet and its been about 6 1/2 years that I've been using it.

10. How long have you had the crab in question?
the crabs in the tank in question have been for about 3 months

11. Do you know the species?
PP

12. Do you bath them, if so how often and with what?
I used to, but not so much anymore.

13. What type of housing are they in? Tank? Plastic box?
glass aqurium

14. What size is your tank?
the one in question is a 10g

15. How many crabs are in the tank? What size are they?
three crabs, and I would say they are on the larger end of being smalls

16. How deep is the substrate?
deep enough for complete submersion

17. If you take your hermies out daily to exercise, do you mist their gill area first?
I try to not handle them at all, except when necessary for cleaning or something of that nature

18. Has there been any cleaners, paints, perfumes, air fresheners, candles, or smoking near the crabitat?
No. I am going to spray for ants in the window but the tanks will be moved prior to that and left out of that room for a few days to ensure the smell is gone before bringing them back in the room.

19. How often do you clean/sterilize and how?
this tank is only 3 months old so I haven't sterilized yet. I have been doing the other one every couple months or so

20. Any unusual odors?
no

21. Do you use sponges? Are they rinsed daily with dechlor water? Are they exchanged every 2 days for a sterile one?
I don't use sponges

22. Do you feed fresh food? When do you remove it?
I feed fresh food outside of the 'tat so nothing can spoil

23. Are your hands clean before handling?
Always, and washed when done handling as well

24. Has there been anything new added to your crabitat recently?
only a coco hut that I already had so it was cleaned off. the last thing added was a piece of cholla wood but that was a month or so ago.

Note: I also saw the same things when I had venus flytrap plants. The pots set in little dishes of water and they absorb the water through the bottom, since they were in moss. Maybe you were right in saying it might be the larva of some kind of bug/fly/gnat or something But I'm not a bug expert so I can't be sure.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 2:00 am

I would agree it sounds like some type of insect eggs hatched into a larval stage . . . if you cannot do a complete change of substrate, remove as much as you can in the affected area, right away.

Use some salt water to moisten the sand . . . many types of insects will not like the salt.

EGcrabber · Post by **EGcrabber** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 11:52 am

I think I know what worms you are talking about. The best thing you can do is a deep clean. That's how I got rid of mine. Also your current humdity is too low. It should range from 75% to 85%. Same with your temperture.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 5:51 pm

the humidity is up to 80% which is what it usually is anyway, it lowered when I had the lid off when I was sticking my eyeball into the dish to try and see what it was

But I normally do leave it at 80%, right inbetween 75 - 85 is probably best right?

I did remove a good chunk of the substrate as well as now I only leave the food in there at night and remove it during the day, just to make sure.

I'll deep clean as soon as I can, but it will be a while unfortunately

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 6:46 pm

One thing I noticed is that you do not have salt water. Hermit crabs need saltwater to stay healthy. You can get aquarium salt very cheap at Wal-Mart.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 9:13 pm

I do have salt water, I just hadn't filled it out on the template cuz I thought it just meant whether it was dechlorinated or not.

Knibitz · Post by **Knibitz** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 9:36 am

this sounds exactly like the worms in my bio teachers crab tank.
They are all fruit fly larva. Most of the time they show up in the food.

She has 2 PPs and they live with a infestation of fruit flies (she's tried everything to get rid of the fruit flies in her room, (without using chemicals because of the mass amount of animals she has) but nothing gets them ALL out. And the prefer the hermit crab tank because its moist.
They crabs don't seem to mind a whole lot though, most of the time they just go on their merry way, but if they are in the food dish, they won't go near it.

I don't think they will harm your crabs any, but I would get them out ASAP.