HCA: Hermit Crab Association

So out of the five crabs that I got from LHC in the beginning of January ( 2 blueberries, 3 strawberries) both blueberries, and two strawberries have gone down. One blueberry and one strawberry have come up (the second strawberry just went down a week and a half ago). Both of my blueberries went down on the exact same day, and one came up a little while ago (he looks so perfect and fresh now!).

I was starting to worry about the other one, and I needed to get the 20 gallon tank he was in ready to iso some other crabs, so I decided to dig and see what was up - assuming that he'd be pretty much done molting if he was okay.

I found a shell stuffed full with dirt, and lots of pieces of exoskeleton and maybe some soft parts right outside his shell. When I tapped the shell against the glass, the dirt came out and then a bunch of peanut-butter like goo slopped out of the opening.

I am really, really bummed. He was the most beat up and least active of the crabs I received, so I'm trying to tell myself if wasn't my fault and that the crab was just too damaged from the trip...

Still.

I really hate it when this happens, I've been on such a good streak with my clan and molting lately, but now this.

So sorry you lost him. It does sound like it was the trip and not anything that you did wrong, especially given that the other one came up fine. It still stinks when that happens.

i'm so sorry, i know how hard this is. i went through the same thing with a large straw

annopia

I'm so sorry about your blue it's always hard to lose one and hard not to blame ourselves, no matter what

I'm sorry for you loss

Thank you all. I'm setting up a 75 gallon tank right now, so I placed another order with LHC, and I'm thinking of emailing to ask for an extra blueberry.
This just hits especially hard because when I first started crabbing, I had molting deaths like that somewhat frequently, and I hope I've solved the problem as I've had good molt after good molt after good molt for a while now.

Actually, these kind of deaths where all you find is the empty shell underground when doing a deep clean is pretty much the only way I've ever had crabs die on me.

sorry for your loss.