HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I saw this when Gretel was halfway out of his shell grooming .. It does not look like a puncture. It looks more like ware. I just recently did a predatory mite treatment. Nothing is crawling in and out of it, so that's good.Can it be: Too much saltToo much humidity It surprised me!! I did not know he had this until I saw this. His molt was February 28,2013 , he has been doing good since then, very active, eating, climbing . This does not seem to have any effect on him as I see. I was thinking that I should put honey on it. Do you think I should?? Any ideas on how I can treat this?? Please reply soon

Theres no need to worry and nothing you can do about it it's where the crab bumped his body during the hardening phase of his last molt and damaged the soft exo.I've seen this a couple of times on the same hermit of mine and for me it's always on the defensive(larger) pincher it looked like the carapace abscessed when it was initially injured but would eventually clear up with the next couple of molts until the crab bumped itself again.All you can do is wait the crab out and hope it doesn't bump itself again.A fully harden carapace will usually display scars instead of fresh wounds except in the case of a bacterial or fungal infection that has caused the abscess to appear in which case the crab will act sick bathing in the salt water constantly to get some relief, you'll see some inflammation and possibly some discharge if there is an infection present.Salt water and humidity wont cause an abscess in fact wild hermitcrabs utilize the ocean water and humidity to speed up the process of healing by soaking in the water and staying near the beach as salt is a natural healing agent.

quote:Originally posted by Crabber85:Theres no need to worry and nothing you can do about it it's where the crab bumped his body during the hardening phase of his last molt and damaged the soft exo.I've seen this a couple of times on the same hermit of mine and for me it's always on the defensive(larger) pincher it looked like the carapace abscessed when it was initially injured but would eventually clear up with the next couple of molts until the crab bumped itself again.All you can do is wait the crab out and hope it doesn't bump itself again.A fully harden carapace will usually display scars instead of fresh wounds except in the case of a bacterial or fungal infection that has caused the abscess to appear in which case the crab will act sick bathing in the salt water constantly to get some relief, you'll see some inflammation and possibly some discharge if there is an infection present.Salt water and humidity wont cause an abscess in fact wild hermitcrabs utilize the ocean water and humidity to speed up the process of healing by soaking in the water and staying near the beach as salt is a natural healing agent. Thank you for your info .. Just hope it's what you say it is.. I will be having close eye on him. I took him out to examin him and he didn't like it, he was squirming .. Awe my Gretel baby

If the abscess is due to an infection it will in most cases present with an odor which is a big cue to let you know whats going on so watch for odd odors and sporadic activity if one or the other or both present then you'll know your dealing with a sick hermit.

quote:Originally posted by Crabber85:If the abscess is due to an infection it will in most cases present with an odor which is a big cue to let you know whats going on so watch for odd odors and sporadic activity if one or the other or both present then you'll know your dealing with a sick hermit. If it becomes this what you theorized, what can I do to help Gretel ?? I will be on the lookout for odd odors What do you mean about "sporadic activity " you mean the crab or the absess ?

By sporadic activity I mean the crab not the abscess if the hole becomes infected the crab will sit in the salt water for abnormal amounts of time and will behave odd in this manner.If the spot should become infected the best thing you can do is make sure there is plenty of salt water available and offer raw or organic honey to the crab every few days as ingesting the honey will do far more to heal the infection that simply putting on the infected spot.

quote:Originally posted by Crabber85:By sporadic activity I mean the crab not the abscess if the hole becomes infected the crab will sit in the salt water for abnormal amounts of time and will behave odd in this manner.If the spot should become infected the best thing you can do is make sure there is plenty of salt water available and offer raw or organic honey to the crab every few days as ingesting the honey will do far more to heal the infection that simply putting on the infected spot. Thank you soo much!! At the moment I do not have any honey, but I will get some

Your welcome and believe I know what your going through as I've been there myself.

Just out of curiosity would feeding them Irish Moss help?

@DragonHeart, the moss your referring to is a type of sea weed that does not appear to have any toxicity to marine life and is used for is carrageen to thicken ice cream and other foods around the world.It does have some nutritional value as a source of protein but you have to be careful with it when you buy it as some harvesting companies use unsafe preservatives on it to give it a longer shelf life since it will go bad rather quickly being that it is comprised of several living organisms.I don't know if offering the sea weed would but it certainly shouldn't hurt.

I'm not sure if the sunken exo on the claw is caused by bumping. The soft exo should regain its shape.I think it's due to lack of osmotic pressure during hardening, so the exo cannot expand fully. This could be due to not getting enough saltwater prior to molting, or molting in too dry of an environment.I've had it happen a couple times before, those cases involved dry molts and no particular soft-injury occuring.Oversaturated molting conditions by contrast can create bacterial blossoms or mildew on the calws.Sometimes I've seen joint deformities, and I think these could be caused by essentially overbending the joint before hardening.That hole in the top of the carapace though, that's in the right position that it could have been inflicted by another crab attempting to remove him from the shell (i.e. a shell fight). I've seen those type of injuries before.

And no one fight with the owner, he knows all. lol