New to forum not new to crabbing

paperheartz · Post by **paperheartz** » Sat Jun 28, 2014 5:48 am

Hi im here to introduce myself my name is Yvonne and my children's names are ivey, two face, bane, and harley quinn. i got my first two hermit crabs for a engagement present. they were the begining of our family. sadly it was from a small kiosk with painted shell hermit crabs so they were on a bad foot to beging with. their names were spiderman and laparas. laperas died first. one day she was just gone. we open the tank and she was in the middle of the tank limp with no signs of molting and a slight fishy smell. spiderman followed because he missed her too much. we had gotten 3 more crabs so he wouldnt be lonely but it wasnt the same. he surface molted and didnt survive that. and 4 is such a round number so we went and bought one more but our new ones we got from a petsmart and they were atleast in natual shells. spiderman and laperas lasted 3 years with us. and laperas even molted once. we did the best we could for them. so here i am. thats my crab story. i have aspergers syndrome and feel very close to my babies because i feel like they understand my anxiety since they themselves suffer from anxiety. so thats a little about me. hiiiiiiiiii

crazycrabber · Post by **crazycrabber** » Sun Jun 29, 2014 6:14 am

welcome! it sounds like you did very well keeping them for three years, everybody else i know who bought them from kiosks had their crabs die in the car ride home.

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Sun Jun 29, 2014 11:13 am

Welcome to the forum and family here at LHC.com, and rest assured you will not be judged as this website was founded on getting the proper information out there and helping crabbers along the way so if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask as that is what we are here for.

paperheartz · Post by **paperheartz** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 11:53 am

quote:Originally posted by crazycrabber:welcome! it sounds like you did very well keeping them for three years, everybody else i know who bought them from kiosks had their crabs die in the car ride home. Thankyou. We tried very hard. I went crazy on information to better care for my new children. I mainly cared for them and told my husband what to do and not to do. They were pretty healthy crabs. They were a nice color and we chose two who really liked us back. Laperas always came out of her shell when I called her and held her and same for spiderman and my husband. Laperas even molted once with us before she passed. It was a struggle with her. One time she got stuck in her shell. She didn't like the ones we had provided and she stayed in hers and just could hardly move in it so we ripped the paint off the best we could since it was already peeling and we used nail clippers to open her opening a little more. And I gave her a bath. The next day she was out and we ran to the store to get diffrent shells for her. She eventually shanged into one then molted. She survived another year then passed. Spider man hadent changed or molted and was already the size of a ping pong ball. Afterher deathhe wouldn't come out of his shell. And due to circumstances we couldn' t get another crab for another 5 days. So we bought 3 more from petsmart but he just sat there staring into the abyse. So I gave them all a tetracycline bath and after the 6th and final treatment day 2 days later he surface molted. Unfortunatly he did it in a coconut hut that 2 others had burrowed under. So I gently had to pick him up and move him or let him run the risk of them coming up to eat him. He died 4 days later. So it was rough but worth it. We love them still so much and wish we could've done more.

paperheartz · Post by **paperheartz** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 11:57 am

quote:Originally posted by Crabber85:Welcome to the forum and family here at LHC.com, and rest assured you will not be judged as this website was founded on getting the proper information out there and helping crabbers along the way so if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask as that is what we are here for. Thank you so much that's really helpful and encouraging. I have aspergers syndrom so its kinda hard for me to make friends especially since no one I know in person really likes hermit crabs. They think I'm weird. So I thought if I joined here maybe I could make friends. And get good tips to add to my plethera of existing knowledge to give a better life for them.

crazycrabber · Post by **crazycrabber** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 12:03 pm

that is a very sad story, they can be like dogs that way, they care about their companions, i have had my crabs for just over three months. i have two, one giant, less active one, with an excruciating pinch, the other, you could say is a champion climber, climbed to the top of his cage every ten seconds for a few days in a row, but i am going to try to be a hermit crab scientist eventually, so i already know a lot, but always open to new info. if you have any advice, since you have been crabbing longer it would always be welcome, i agree, i like my pets better than a lot of people, animals aren't as outright nasty!

paperheartz · Post by **paperheartz** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 5:44 pm

quote:Originally posted by crazycrabber:that is a very sad story, they can be like dogs that way, they care about their companions, i have had my crabs for just over three months. i have two, one giant, less active one, with an excruciating pinch, the other, you could say is a champion climber, climbed to the top of his cage every ten seconds for a few days in a row, but i am going to try to be a hermit crab scientist eventually, so i already know a lot, but always open to new info. if you have any advice, since you have been crabbing longer it would always be welcome, i agree, i like my pets better than a lot of people, animals aren't as outright nasty! ya i figured since we didnt have more than the two they just got used to each other. and i didnt know about the tetracycline initially. or i wouldve used it sooner. but i think in the end since they had only known each other for so long it was too much of a shock and since i got the crabs from two completely diffrent places the new crabs were just not the same. thats why we have 4 now so if or when one dies it wont be so much a shock to the other three. and ya if you have any questions just ask and maybe ill know them. i know i learned alot initially but more of my knowledge took time to gather. and yes thats why i love animals so much!

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Tue Jul 01, 2014 7:59 am

Tetracycline is actually pretty harmful to hermitcrabs they don't tolerate antibiotics they way we do and the only naturally occurring antibacterial agent I know of that they can have and use on a regular basis is raw or organic honey its loaded with tons of natural antimicrobial/antibacterial goodies that the crabs can utilize to help heal infections.What it sounds like is the crabs you've had die on you were suffering from PPS or Post Purchase Stress which is a combination of several different symptoms which can effect them well after their first molt with us.PPS does significant internal damage as well as mental and hermitcrabs who have had to endure it typically don't fare well.PPS comes from the abuse and neglect that they receive from the time they are harvested, held at the harvesters warehouse 2+months and then finally shipped to the store that will be selling them.During this whole time which can take anywhere from two months to a year the crabs are not kept hydrated, they are fed a poor diet of pelleted food and are in cramped living conditions being tossed in a small holding room typically no larger than your bathroom with hundreds of other crabs from dozens of different regions(the same species of hermitcrab can come from half a dozen different regions within miles of each other and each region has its own flora and fauna containing regional specific bacteria, fungi, molds and viruses) which leads to stress and since their immune system is compromised by the stress of it all and a severe lack of nutrition they typically quickly die due to bacterial, viral or fungal infections while in the holding facility.You can't just toss two or three hundred hermitcrabs crabs which come from many different regions of habitat together and not expect some trans-communication of disease as hermitcrabs from different regions have different levels of resistance to these pests depending on if these pests were native to them or not.You combine all this and you get a sick almost dead hermitcrab arriving at the store where you bought it and odds are the poor thing hasn't received much better care in store than it had before not to mention this whole time the poor crab has had to postpone molting for weeks or months while in holding, transit and when it finally arrives at the store.Hermitcrabs can postpone a molt if suitable conditions have not been found by secreting a molt inhibiting hormone(Polly-peptide Neurohormone) aka MIH in its eye stalks that disallows the molt process to start.This molt inhibitor will continue to build up in the crabs eye stalks until it becomes so toxic that it outright kills the crab or forces it into an emergency surface molt in most instances the crab just can not molt and dies due to MIH toxicity.In normal conditions the crab will be able to begin secreting a molt inducing hormone called Ecydsteroids which begin to flush the MIH hormone out of the crabs body and signals to the crab that its time to burrow down and carve out a molt pocket, typically once the molt inducer starts flushing the crabs body the crab only has a few days to tank up on nutrients and water which often results in a molt sac which the crab will depend on for its nutrient load over the course of the next two to eight weeks while its underground casting off the old exoskeleton.There are three things that will catalyze a molt process the right balance of temp and humidity(80*/80% for temp and humidity), deep moist substrate and an adequate nutrition load without these the odds of the crab beginning a molt process and successfully finishing are not great unfortunately. This is why an isolation time of four weeks with no contact from us is so imperative for newly purchased hermitcrabs, the crabs are so stressed when the get to us that having to immediately do a meet and greet with new tank mates, compete for food/water and shells just adds too much extra stress which often times ends up with the new purchase freezing up and then dropping all of its limbs a few days later.Its completely okay to isolate new crabs together who were all purchased at the same time from the same store as they would have already been with each other for some time so the impacts of having them together in iso will be greatly diminished.If your just buying one at time then each one needs to be individually isolated for the four week period.Isolating new crabs is not just done for the newbies benefit but also to protect your existing crabs from any pests or infections the newbies might be bringing with them that should show within the four weeks of iso time.This is why it is mandatory to have a ten gallon iso tank up and running before you purchase additional crabs, I have my ten gallon all ready to go in case I decide to purchase any new crabs or if I happen to have an emergency like a streaker that needs to be iso'd for its safety.

Tongue Flicker · Post by **Tongue Flicker** » Sun Jul 13, 2014 12:45 pm

Hey yvonne welcome aboard!