Is he sick or premolting or dying or...?

Erika · Post by **Erika** » Mon May 05, 2014 9:49 am

Saturday afternoon I noticed that my medium-sized PP crab Dylan's exoskeleton was almost peeling off. I was holding it and noticed that its large pincer looked almost deflated, and after more inspection I had come to the conclusion that he was going to molt very soon. I had him isolated overnight with shells that were both a bit smaller and a bit bigger than him because I didn't know if he was going to switch shells. I wake up Sunday morning to find that Dylan hadn't even buried himself. He just sat on his food and looked out the tank very longingly. So I attempted to lift him so I could transfer him back to the "home" tank, and he clutches the food dish like it's a lifeline. I was very worried, because he hadn't molted or buried or switched shells. I checked in on him a few hours later and found him crawling all over the shells I laid out for him, but he never tried to inspect them, he just knocked them around. and once he let me lift him, and he was scarily limp. His exo still looked like I could've just taken it off myself if I wanted to, but after I set him down he was moving very slowly, and went straight to the food dish. And he never ate! I checked on him on almost a half-hour basis but he didn't move. Now it's Monday and nothing has changed. Is he going to die or is he sick or something else?

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Mon May 05, 2014 10:04 am

If you could please copy and post the questionnaire found here so that we can help you better.Once I see the answers from the questionnaire I can assist you further but for now I just don't have enough information to go on to help you with.If the crab were in the process of molting it would not be able to move and the shedding portion of the event lasts several seconds to just shy a of minute so its highly unlikely that you would have caught the crab mid shed.

Erika · Post by **Erika** » Mon May 05, 2014 10:35 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 three crabs since August but this is not my first time caring for hermit crabs. 2) What size is your tank and what kind of lid do you have? My tank is not a ten gallon tank, but it is rectangular and just big enough to hold one small and two medium-sized crabs. I have a plastic lid on top with air holes. 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 currently do not have a heat fixture *cringes* but the humidity is OK I think. I am working on getting a heat fixture, but my mother thinks I'm insane for caring so much about these crabs. 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 have sand substrate and it is damp and sand castle consistency. The depth is about five and a half inches, and it does cover my biggest crab. 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 do not dechlorinate my fresh water and I know it is a problem and I am making a big trip to the pet store this week so I can fix these supply problems. I don't use tap water, though. I use bottled water at the moment. I do not have enough room for a second water dish, and that is the feeble excuse I have for not offering salt water. I AM WORKING ON IT THOUGH I SWEAR. 6) What do you normally feed your crabs?I feed my crabs the hermit crab food they sell at pet stores, and very day I put in fresh produce on a small food dish. I try to vary it (mangoes, strawberries, carrot, apples, ect.)7) Do you bathe, mist or handle your crabs at all?I love to handle my crabs. I like watching them trust me more and more every day, and I occasionally hand-feed them. I do not bathe them, they seem to do it on their own at night. I mist the tank occasionally to boost humidity.

What are the temperature and humidity readings? Please be specific and include high low fluctuations if you're aware of them.The temperature (currently) is at 72, the humidity is at 75% and it will fluctuate sometimes if the sand is not at sandcastle consistency. I hope this helps a bit more!

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Mon May 05, 2014 11:19 am

I know your trying your best to get an appropriate set up going but there are a few things we need to address unfortunately.Your temp is much too low as hermitcrabs need a minimum temp of 75 to properly digest/metabolize the food and water they eat and to maintain good health.Salt water is critical to molt success and to the overall health and wellbeing of the crab/s.The tank you have is it acrylic?If so you wont be able to put a heat pad on it without melting the plastic and due to the small size an overhead heat source will only serve to overheat and dry out the enclosure baking the occupants.You really need to focus on getting a ten gallon glass aquarium as soon as possible as the enclosure you have is not sufficient unfortunately.You need to check the ingredients list on the commercial hermitcrab foods you offer for these preservatives, ethoxyquin, copper sulfate, iron sulfate, ferrous sulfate, bha and bht these are all used as industrial pesticides and as such can not differentiate between the insects they are meant to kill and the hermitcrabs they are being fed to.These preservatives have been linked to failed molts(molt related deaths), molt deformities and exoskeleton issues.If you see any of these ingredients you need to toss the food/s as it/they are not usable.Bottled water is an okay alternative as long as its spring water as normal bottled drinking water comes from your municipal or county sources same as your tap water so your just offering bottled tap water that has had the taste of the chlorine/chloramines and heavy metals filtered out without having actually removed them.Bottled water other than spring water still needs to be treated with dechlorinating drops to make it safe.The crab in question having such odd physical deformities with lack of hardness to the exo suggests that you found the crab after it had shed its old outer exo so my question is did you see any sheddings laying about and are the other tank-mates up.Its highly possible that the old exo sheddings were consumed by one of the other crabs as this is very common with surface molters.I highly recommend isolating the crab in question for at least two weeks make sure that it has fresh food and water available at all times, its not likely that the crab will have an appetite for several days if it has indeed surface molted but you need to put some freeze dried shrimp in as the crab needs the chitin and calcium from the shrimp to replace what it lost by having its own old exo stolen before it could eat it.