My Phil

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I started with hermies last year on august 31, got 4 darlings for my birthday along with really just about everything I needed to make them happy little crawbs. We lost Augustus not long after we got him, a month or two. I live at the beach and basically rescued them all from the beach store. Augustus was missing parts on both his pinchers and was too stressed and scared to let me feed him. It was probably all too much for him and he didn't make it. Less than a week ago I found that my Phil has gone. Back in July I had disturbed her during a molt. It was very traumatic for me, to say the least, and had help here in the forum- I had done the best thing I could do in the situation and I thought everything was going to be fine. Phil was the largest of the four crabs. Phil and Augustus were talking to eachother in the beach store cage (horrible conditions in those places. Just not right for crabs.) when I got them. She seemed to be the hardiest, and the friendliest. And she seemed to have a relationship with all the other crabs which they really did not appear to have with each other. I don't know, it's so strange, they're so small. In some ways just glorified bugs, but this crab was a precious little being. It surprised me. And I see many of you feel the same. They are really special little things.After what I thought was the fiasco of the century regarding my Phil, I was so happy to see her come up from the sand a couple of weeks later- bigger, stronger and more awesome than ever. She found herself a pretty purple new shell, ate a good bit. Then she went back down. Didn't see her the whole month of august. Didn't see any of them for the whole month of august. Finally the two smaller ones came up, (Hibiscuit and Ethel) and after a week or so of them running around I noticed mites. I was worried about that and went into clean mode. I dug carefully, not wanting to repeat the mistake. But I felt it, I knew it wasn't going to be good. I found her shell and tapped on it with the spoon. It sounded hollow. I moved it and saw her. It looked like it had been a while. I think that's what brought the mites. At one point we had had a really awful smell in the house we couldn't get rid of. The tank never seemed to smell when we put our faces in there. I thought it was shrimp shells stuck in the garbage disposal. I don't think so now. RIP Phil. I'm so sorry. If it's my fault I'm really really really sorry.Sometimes I just think they should stop pulling them off the beach and we should all just leave them alone.