Longevity

OIF_VET · Post by **OIF_VET** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 10:34 pm

I believe Carol Has had the Crabs over 25 Years....I think they Passed on at 27 and 28 Years?

If somebody Knows for sure...Please Back me up...I know somewhere in my
Long and Exhaustive searching on the Net, I had seen or Heard it somewhere.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 10:40 pm

Christa has been crabbing for a LONG time. I wonder if she can shed some insite on this. What is the longest time she had a crab...does anyone know?

Willow · Post by **Willow** » Sat Jan 28, 2006 11:05 pm

The longest I've had a crab (actually, 3 crabs I bought at the same time) is about 3 years now---but one of the "originals" just died, of completely unknown causes. He moulted a couple months ago and seemed to be doing well....then he was just hanging around under the heat lamp, very weak and lethargic, so I put him in iso (because I've had a few weak crabs pulled out of their shells by a shell-jacker), and he died not long after. There must be something that they need that isn't being provided. I just wish we knew what it was.
One member on another forum had a crab for 9 years...but then he died in very much the same way as my crabbie.
OIF_VET: Last I heard, Carol's crabs were still alive and kicking. If anyone knows otherwise, I'd like to know.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Jan 29, 2006 1:58 pm

I've had my first crabs since november 2003, so far, so good. They're both healhy and growing steadilly. Ofcourse I've had some deaths, but not too many. My tribe is 25+ now

Most my deaths have been from cannibalism/shell theft (I have one aggressive crab who seems to constantly end up in a shell that belonged to another crab... who I find dead and buried during clean-up.. he seems to have stopped though, he's been Azura's shell since her death :/)

My other deaths have been PPS (I rescue crabs that seem on the edge of death. So you know you're gonna lose some of them. Most live though after some TLC)

I haven't had much unexplained deaths.

This would set the record for me at 2 years and 3 months or so.

Boring scedule of my crab history:
november 2003:
Big Guy- PP - lives
Bashee- Rug- lives
Paru-E-died due to disturbed molt
Dexter-E-died due to cannibalism (NEVER ask your mother in law to feed your crabs while you're gone.. she forgets and then the lil E's become dinner)
Francois-E-alive and very very much grown
December 2003:
Zilla-PP-alive
O'Malley-PP-alive
May 2004:
May-Cav-alive
Zico-Cav-died due to PPS in the first weeks
September 2004:
Tundu, Maji and Gahli-E-I THINK they're alive, but they grew so much I can't tell who is who x_X
November 2004:
Amon-jumbo E- alive and very present too.
Azura-E-died due to shell theft
October 2005:
Asmoday-jumbo PP-alive
Bhaal-jumbo PP-died due to severe mite infestation, bad molt and overall exhaustion (he was a petstore rescue that never really did well, bought him with mites and never really freed him from mites, he lived for months with me though and I got him through most rough spots... but he finally couldn't do it anymore after a very tragic molt, he died a few weeks after his molt that left him deformed and covered in decaying exo

)

I think that's a fairly good track record

I have more crabs than that but I honestly have lost track of the dozens of little E's and PP's I've got. They've grown so much... I don't know who is who anymore x_X Most deaths are simply from lousy threatment by stores or previous owners. With the right care I feel crabs can become VERY old.

Sheb · Post by **Sheb** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:01 pm

I've heard MANY different lengths of time over the past few years so I'm not sure what an accurate average would be. I've had my crabs for 2 years & 5 months