Molt or dropped leg?

Amanda2 · Post by **Amanda2** » Wed Sep 03, 2014 12:56 pm

One of my smallest hermies finally came back up and then he crawled to a corner and dug a shallow hole and stayed there in his shell. I was very ecited to see him so I picked him up to look at him. He came out and was fine so I put him back. He then crawled into the salt water dish and stayed there for a while but by morning he was back in the corner. I changed the saltwater today and found a small piece of claw exo. What do I do? Do I put him in ISO??

crazycrabber · Post by **crazycrabber** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 2:56 am

he could be doing a surface molt, so yes you should iso. But iso the ones that are molting, never the actual molter, cause that could kill the molter. A surface molt may signal that your substrate isn't deep enough, must be at least twice the height of your largest crab. Make sure to keep him in a dark room and when he is done, give him lots of caroetene and calcium and let him eat his exoskeleton, then bathe him so that he smells the same as the others, so they won't attempt to attack him.

crazycrabber · Post by **crazycrabber** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 3:14 am

molting but i can't answer anymore questions unless you answer the answers given above.

crazycrabber · Post by **crazycrabber** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 3:20 am

sorry the url didn't work out because i am doing this from my phone and my phone is weird, because it doesn't have a control button, so i couldn't control c and control v for the questions. When i get home i will send the link from the computer unless you find it based on the address. And if and when you do, just rewrite them and put your answer underneath. It helps us know what is going on and how to do it.

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 8:04 am

First I'm so sorry your having issues with your hermitcrab but we are here to help.If you could please copy and post the answers found here it will help us to help you as it will give us a better picture of whats going on in your enclosure that might contributing to this behavior your seeing.

jenok · Post by **jenok** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 8:34 am

Also please specify. Does the crab still have all legs and/or pinchers and what you found is just an extra piece OR did it fall off the crab after you picked it up?Please answer the questions in the link crabber posted so we can help determine if anything needs to be changed.

Amanda2 · Post by **Amanda2** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 8:35 am

I will put him in ISO as soon as I find him(no I will not dig for him ) but I believe he is safe I saw both of them last night and his morning. But the one who lost claw is now in hiding. Just in case here are the questions1) How long have you had your crabs and how long have you been caring for this particular crab in distress? At least 4 years, about 6 months for the claw dropper2) What size is your tank and what kind of lid do you have? 10gallon glass lid with airholes3) What are you using for heat? Please be specific and include fixture type, watt or mat size and where the heat source is mounted. The space the tank is in is already warm enough4) What kind of substrate do you use in your tank and at what depth? Is it dry or damp and sand castle consistency? Forest bedding/sand, it could use some moisture5) 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?yes,API tap conditioner. Yes, all living things soaking salt6) What do you normally feed your crabs? Anything on the food list + commercial food7) Do you bathe, mist or handle your crabs at all? I Rarely handle them8) What are the temperature and humidity readings? Please be specific and include high low fluctuations if you're aware of them. I don't use gauges it is already warm and humid enoughThanks for your help!

crazycrabber · Post by **crazycrabber** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 9:45 am

first of all no estimating with hermit crabs, you should get guages and heating pads, that can be a killer, but a lot of the other stuff sounds fine. but make your substrate wet enough. other than that your crab is probably just doing a surface molt and needs for you to remove the other crabs.

Amanda2 · Post by **Amanda2** » Thu Sep 04, 2014 11:30 am

Thanks, I put him in ISO. I was cleaning the tank and I found him! (Yay) he was walking around fine but iso'd just in case.

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Fri Sep 05, 2014 8:20 am

Limb dropping is a sign of a very high level of stress this can be caused by anything from poor climate ie temp and humidity have been off for some time, poor nutrition and overcrowding.It doesn't sound like an overcrowding issue so that can be eliminated.Its either going to be climate or diet related and without the proper gauges to tell you what your temp and humidity levels are I'm fairly certain they've been doing a fair amount of extreme swinging especially since you've been relying on the temp of the room to control both variables basically and heat doesn't transfer through aquarium glass very well which means the tank has been a lot cooler like five to ten degrees cooler than your room at times which is not healthy for your crabs unfortunately.You really need to get a combo gauge the measures both temp and humidity as soon as possible.I'd also strongly recommend looking at the commercial foods you have for these ingredients ethoxyquin, copper sulfate, ferrous sulfate, bha or bht because these are all very common ingredients in commercial hermitcrab foods and all of them especially the ethoxyquin and copper are known to be used as industrial strength pesticides and since there is absolutely no regulation on how much of this stuff can be added to hermitcrab food the amounts can very from almost nothing anything under 5mgs to completely toxic pretty much anything over 5mgs.Top it all off with the fact that these pesticides/preservatives can not discriminate between the hermitcrabs they are being fed to and the insects they are meant to kill which leads to a lot of molting complications and general health issues like soft body disease where the crabs harder outer layer of exo goes soft due to an acute absence of calcium so if you see any of the above listed additives in your commercial hermitcrab foods then they need to be tossed out.My recommendation at this point to isolate the limb dropper making sure to keep the iso dim and humid and quiet for the next two weeks at minimum.You'll also need to replace the substrate you have if your using a mix of calci/repti sand and jungle bedding which is that thick barky kind of stuff with some eco earth or coconut fiber bedding and regular play sand to a depth of no less than six inches and make sure the substrate is sandcastle in consistency.I'll let you digest this bit and then either I or someone else will get back with you.