Little white bugs in crab water

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 2:43 pm

I was scooping dirty sand out of the crab tank when I noticed what I thought were a few grains of sand wiggling in the water bowl. When I saw that they were wiggling I grew suspicious and took the water bowl out to get a better look and saw that they were actually small white bugs. D: I removed the water bowl and dumped the contents outside and washed the bowl out in hot water. Once that was done I looked inside the tank and checked the sand to see if I could see any more of those bugs, but as far as I can tell there are no others.

I'm not sure of what to do. Even though I can't see any other bugs in the tank I'm betting there are some in there. I can't take the sand out and replace it or clean the tank because both crabs (I have two) are beneath the sand somewhere and have been under for quite some time (months D:). I actually haven't seen them since December so hopefully they are okay... but anyway...

What can I do?

Tremors · Post by **Tremors** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 6:01 pm

You'll probably want to check your crabs to see if any bugs are on them. I would also suggest putting something fresh (fruit would be good) in your hermit crabs' food dish, letting it sit maybe overnight or so, and then checking to see if there are any bugs on it. In most cases, bugs that you find eating the crabs' food are fine, but parasitic bugs on the crabs themselves can be a problem.

Here is a thread about crabitat bugs that might also be helpful: http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... 82&start=0

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Apr 09, 2009 10:57 pm

I'll leave a bit of fruit in overnight... See what happens.

And I would check on the crabs to see if they have anything on them but because they are dug under, it's kind of hard to do.

Ugh. I hope they aren't anything harmful...

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 8:12 am

good luck!

eregel · Post by **eregel** » Fri Apr 10, 2009 4:27 pm

Have you seen flies in there? It sounds like you could be talking about fly larvae - the maggots for fruit flies are pretty small and very wriggly.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 2:42 pm

No, I have not seen any flies in the tank.

Also, I had no fruit in the house to leave in the tank over night. I tested it with some lettuce though and there were no bugs on it. However, there are four more of the bugs yet again in the water. I'm trying to get a good look at 'em but they wiggle around a lot!

EDIT: Okay. I thought the bugs were drowning in the water but on closer inspection, they were actually WALKING on it. O_O Can mites do that? And this time I did find a few in the sand...

I'm really not sure what these things are. They are longish and white with small legs in front, maybe six or four?? (hard to tell), and they have backends they can move up and down.

Now I'm probably going to have to dig up the crabs and get rid of the sand. D:

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 4:39 pm

hate that for you - be careful! (not that you need telling...ha ha ha) but really, good luck again! Fortunately I've never experienced a bug problem (knock on wood.)

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:06 pm

Thanks for the luck but I may not have to dig them up after all---hopefully.

I think I know what the bugs are now. I did a little research and I'm pretty certain the bugs in my tank are springtails. These bugs are listed on the bug sticky and it mentions they are good cleaners so I'm assuming they are not harmful to the crabs. (If they are harmful to the crabs please let me know!!) The sticky doesn't say.

Well! That's a bit of good news. I don't like the fact of having bugs in my tank but as long as they aren't something really really bad I guess I can deal with them for now. D:

Jedediah · Post by **Jedediah** » Wed Apr 22, 2009 3:27 am

I second the springtail identificatino

Sitting and running around on the water is typical for them and no other bug commonly found in crabitats does it (at least not as much as springtails do).
They are perfectly harmless. I need to check the sticky, but I think that unless I mentioned that the bugs are harmful, all species described are harmless and/or beneficial. If they don't bother you, just leave them and they will keep the place clean for you. They also won't leave the crabitat or will die quickly if they do, although you may find some in your flower pots, especially if water has gathered at the bottom, they love sitting there.