The great stress coat experiment

[JediMasterThrash]

Stress-Coat is surrounded by a lot of myths, speculation, anecdotes, and has gone through a rollercoaster ride of recommendation and avoidance. The only thing lacking is actual evidence.In my article "Debunking the Slime-Coat Myth", I did research to dispel some myths about slime-coat enhancers and aloe (specifically the fact that aloe is not the slime-coat enhancer, as is commonly stated).--> http://landhermitcrabs.com/eve...341054 ... 054322Also, it must be noted that 'slime-coat" is not "Stress-coat". Slime coat enhancers are added to a variety of water conditioners, most of which do not contain aloe. Stress-coat is just a particular brand of water conditioner that does contain aloe.I decided we needed to find out whether stress-coat was actually dangerous or not, since none of the evidence seems to support that conclusion, but it is widely circulated that stress-coat is harmful.--------------So for the past three years, I have been using Stress-Coat as the exclusive water conditioner for all my crabs' water, and here are the results.Since I began using Stress-Coat, I have no longer had any unexplained surface deaths of crabs, or dead crabs in the water pools. Previously, I would occasionally (one or two every couple of months) find a crab that had died on the surface (you can tell when it happens because the whole house stinks), or had gone naked and died in the water pool.It is unclear if Stress-Coat actually helped to reduce deaths, due to the fact that I'm constantly enhancing my crab-care techniques. Other things I've changed over the past two years include monthly cleaning of the filtered pools and re-seeding both substrate and water. However, the fact that I haven't had any unexplained surface deaths at the least means that Stress-Coat didn't do any harm, and potentially may have helped.I do deep cleans at 6-8 month intervals, where I hand sift through all the substrate and inventory the crab population. The instances of unexplained sub-surface deaths are unchanged from before the experiment. Again, this doesn't prove that Stress-Coat improved anything, but at least it did not result in any increase in crab mortality.I currently also have crabs from several species including PPs, Es, Brevies, Rugs, Viols, and Straws. The exotics in particular are showing strength in the past 2 years. Previously I'd had a lot of trouble with them. I think I had a dozen rugs and straws at one time and had probably lost all of the original population, as well as my original brevies and viols. But now I haven't lost any in a long time, and they have gone through many successful molts. Again, the success with the exotics could just be a result of my continued improvements to the crabitat, but at least the exotics don't appear to be sensitive to Stress-coat in any negative way.As I mentioned in my previous threads, I have of course still had some explained deaths. I was four months late in doing my deep clean and then started loosing a couple crabs in short time frame before I did the deep clean. And my substrate was oversaturated with water which caused a few molting deaths last year.Additionally, since we moved 2 years ago, our new house has an RO filtration system for the water. So I actually do not need to use any water conditioner, but for this experiment, I continued to use Stress Coat anyway, even with the RO water, to see if the hydrocolloids or aloe may provide any extra benefits.--------------Due to the fact that several factors were varied (As my crabarium is a continued experiment in progress), I can't offer a specific conclusion. I used stress-coat exclusively for three years, and over that time period, hermit crab health and mortality is remained constant or improved. Successful molt rate of exotic species is noticeably improved. At the least, I think that stress-coat is not harmful.Stress-coat is composed of two key elements, a slime-coat enhancer and aloe. Slime coats are natural hydrocolloids (some are created from seaweed) that thicken the water into a protective slime that helps to protect and heal wounds. They are found in many water conditioners. Aloe oil (liquid inside the leaves) is purported to have beneficial healing and soothing effects for all animals, though there is no real evidence. Aloe skin is harmful to insects, but not the oil, and it is the oil that is used for healing effects.