My tank has the foul odor but both of them are alive? SUPER URGENT!

CandyBolts™ · Post by **CandyBolts™** » Mon Jan 20, 2014 4:41 pm

1) How long have you had your crabs and how long have you been caring for this particular crab in distress?I have had them since July. I discovered the problem when I came home this evening.2) What size is your tank and what kind of lid do you have? My crabitat is 25 gallons and I have a basic reptile tank lid on top with a heating lamp attached.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 was using a 60watt daytime light because we got the wrong one and it took a little bit to be able to get a nighttime one. I was going to install the night time one, which is 40watt today before all this happened. It is a basic heat lamp that is positioned on one side of the tank, sitting on the mesh lid like most reptile enclosures. I have been saving up for an actual hood but this has been pretty okay as keeping the enclosure at a decent temperature.4) What kind of substrate do you use in your tank and at what depth? Is it dry or damp and sand castle consistency?Play sand. I normally mix it with eco earth but we forgot to get some this time. It was sand castle consistency, maybe a little dryer but pretty close.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 dechlorinate all of my water. I use Zoo Med Hermit Crab Drinking Water Conditioner. I do offer salt water. I make it myself with pure salt and dechlorinated water with a recipe that I found in a hermit crab owners handbook that I cannot name at the moment. 6) What do you normally feed your crabs?Tetrafauna Hermit Crab Meal is the usual day to day meal. With calcium powder added, of course. I sometimes give them various treats like a little bit of honey or some fruit.7) Do you bathe, mist or handle your crabs at all?I mist them once a week or twice a week. Where I live is pretty humid but you can't be too safe. I bathed them the first couple of weeks that I had them but then I read somewhere that it wasn't necessary/bad for your crabs? Plus, I have fairly small crabs compared to others and their able to submerged their bodies in their drinking dishes. They have no trouble climbing out though!8) What are the temperature and humidity readings? Please be specific and include high low fluctuations if you're aware of them.To be honest, getting new supplies for my crabs was inspired because my thermometer and humudity gauges broke. So I'm honestly not sure waht they have been for the past couple of days. Right now, the isolation tank is about 73 degrees.There ya go!Here's some specific details about my situation.I just recently got some play sand/sandbox sand and a few more toys for the first time I changed the sand in my crabitat. The sand was packaged and I had read on a different site that play sand was perfectly safe for hermit crabs and it is more affordable. When I opened it, it was a little moist and I didn't stop to think what that could mean and was just pleased with it and added it to the tank and put my crabs back in.They both seemed fairly pleased with the change,and even my larger crab, Hermes, who is normally really shy was actively climbing about and moving around. I have a feeder and water thingy that give food and water to the crabs even if I'm not there because I am often away on the weekends. As was with this weekend.Upon returning, both crabs, even the constantly active and feisty Bruce Wayne were extremely sluggish and still. And the tank had that smell.The smell that means one of your crabs passed away. But I was surprised to find both of them still alive and in their shells. I quickly moved them to the isolation tank where I baked some of the sand to sanitize it just to be extra safe and it is late at night and I'm a minor with school in the morning so my father told me to just do that for now and deal with it tomorrow. Neither crab is showing signs of molting and once in the isolation tank, they've resumed being active and healthy looking?I have no idea what could have caused the smell and now I'm worried that they are sick. I sanitized all the shells I've given them before.

Shelbykay246 · Post by **Shelbykay246** » Mon Jan 20, 2014 11:57 pm

number 6, don't feed them commercial food ever. You need protein, veggies, fruit, etc.

Miko · Post by **Miko** » Tue Jan 21, 2014 2:39 am

it sounds like you got a bad batch of sand, i would bake it and take every thing out and bake/boil it.

jenok · Post by **jenok** » Tue Jan 21, 2014 3:48 am

Many things can cause bad odor. Yes it is possible that the sand had some sort of contaminate so toss it and get another $3-5 bag of sand. Check it this time for any unusual smells or oily film and such.Second it is also possible that they hid some food somewhere and it started to rot causing the smell.Next item i'm asking about is what are you calling pure salt? The only salt you should use is the aquarium salt such as API freshwater salt(you have to use more of) or Instant Ocean(IO) is the one most of us use. It is a little pricey $10-15 but lasts a long...... time. If you will look in the forum library archives under food and water there is a lot of info you should read. You should be giving more fresh items and not the store bought food. Let us know if you don't understand or have questions. We're here to help.

Crabber85 · Post by **Crabber85** » Tue Jan 21, 2014 7:51 am

@CandyBolts, my first question here is how long had the sand been in as sand will develop a strong odor over time as the fecal and food wastes build up.Please look on the back of the bottle for the commercial food your offering and look for these ingredients: ethoxyquin, copper sulfate, ferrous sulfate, iron sulfate, bha and bht if any of these are present then the food needs to be tossed as it contains chemicals used as industrial pesticides and as such can not tell the difference between the insects they are meant to kill and the hermitcrabs they are being fed to to.Hermitcrabs are biologically preprogrammed to avoid foods that they have smelled for twenty four to forty eight hours after smelling it.This is to ensure that the crabs get a varied diet as eating the same thing every day will cause severe nutritional deficiencies.I agree the sand needs to be replaced as it does sound like you got a bad bag.