Dropping legs, uh oh.

HermitCrabby_LHC · Post by **HermitCrabby_LHC** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 6:24 am

1) How long have you had your crabs and how long have you been caring for this particular crab in distress?I have had crabs for 3 years but only had this guy 3-4 days.2) What size is your tank and what kind of lid do you have? My main tank is a 10g with saran wrapped screen lid. He is in a large pretzel jar as Im not aure what to do.3) What are you using for heat? Please be specific and include fixture type, watt or mat size and where the heat source is mounted.I have a 75w heat lamp over his little thing that is about 6-8 inches away so it doesnt over heat.4) What kind of substrate do you use in your tank and at what depth? Is it dry or damp and sand castle consistency?I use playsand and eco earth, main tank 6 inches this tank 4, damp.5) Do you dechlorinate your fresh water and if so, with what product? Do you offer aquarium salt water in addition to fresh water? Again, what product?I have both fresh and salt water and use prime to dechlorinate, and use IO for salt.6) What do you normally feed your crabs?Lettuces, carrots, bell peppers, banana, apple, organic peanut butter, LHC hermit crab food, freeze dried shrimp, krill bloodworms, and whatever I have laying about.7) Do you bathe, mist or handle your crabs at all?I mist the tank 1-2 times a day, avoid handling and bathing them.

What are the temperature and humidity readings? Please be specific and include high low fluctuations if you're aware of them.The humidity and temp are in the 75-80 range on a daily basis.He has dropped both claws and 2 legs, I ISOd him but I may put him back in the main tank as the others are down molting. I dont want to lose him. He is still alive. I have fed him LHC food today, and dipped him in freshwater for 2-3 seconds then saltwater. Right now he is on his food dish.

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 7:37 am

First let me say how sorry I am that your having such issues with your new purchase, I know its a difficult thing to watch a brand new hermit just fall apart and have no way to stop it.Secondly your using overhead heat on an enclosure that is much too small to do anything more than dry out and overheat quickly and backing the heat lamp off wont do much for the drying out effect but might help a little bit with the overheating.I know you know how difficult the journey is for a hermitcrab to get to us and in most instances they are just so stressed that they only have one option which is to try to trick the stress into leaving them alone by dropping limbs much the same way that they do when being chased by a predator but unfortunately stress is a mental thing and so can't be dealt with physically unfortunately which means the crab will continue to drop limbs until it exhausts itself in the effort.This limb dropping is called autonomy some species of lizards have it where they will drop their tails to distract the predator just long enough for them to get away, its the the same basic principal for hermitcrabs and since its automatic the crab can't just turn it off there has to be certain physical and mental cues triggered to stop it.We can trigger these cues by using dim lighting, being very quiet and not handling the crab at all for at least four weeks which is a basic iso period for any new purchase.From reading the info you gave in your first post I don't recall seeing you mention that you iso'd the crab at all which has undoubtedly caused some extra undue stress on the poor crab.Newly purchased hermitcrabs do best with a four week period where they are completely by themselves as having to compete for food, water and shells not to mention being forced into doing a meet and greet with all of its new tank mates just after coming home from the store, so all of this combined on top of the stress that the crab has already been through tends to push it over the edge and then the limb dropping sets in.I would recommend that you keep the crab isolated for at least three more weeks making sure to keep the temp and humidity stable at around 80 for both values, keep the enclosure dimly lit and make sure to offer easy to digest power foods like raw or organic honey, mushed bananas and organic peanut-butter.Your temp and humidity levels seem stable enough and everything else seems good so just keep your fingers crossed and hopefully the little one pulls through.

HermitCrabby_LHC · Post by **HermitCrabby_LHC** » Fri Apr 18, 2014 10:21 am

I did ISO it with the other crab I got in a 10g tank, but now have put him in a smaller tank so I can monitor him better.I side mounted the heat lamp so its used like a UTH, as it heats the side then the side heats the enclosure. I gave him some mashed up banana. Since I posted that he dropped both claws and can no longer move, so I put him in the food dish and he ate some, he has also come out and been trying to walk, so I think he may pull through.

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Mon Apr 21, 2014 5:41 pm

@HermitCrabby, he may pull through okay and if he does be prepared for him to go down to molt very soon afterwards as the limb loss may trigger him into it.

Katia · Post by **Katia** » Mon Jun 16, 2014 5:34 am

I have a hermit crab without a limb on it's leg. Will the limb ever grow back!?

Geranium · Post by **Geranium** » Mon Jun 16, 2014 6:09 am

Katia, usually they will begin to grow back lost limbs at the next molt. Do you know how your crab lost it? If you want help assessing your conditions, etc start a new topic and include the answers to the questions listed here.