Shell change at last!!!

[megcolv]

I took a picture of it but am having trouble uploading it. Jerry is all the way back inside the huge shell and the exo was actually clinging by a piece of fibrous material inside the shell. It totally looked like he was dead and disintegrating until I saw him curled up in the back. Really hoping that he's going to be okay now, will let him finish out the molt and reassess.
The sand is definitly dryer around the side with the heater. I have a long heater attached to the backside. I dont use and UTH because it's so deep, but have a heater in the water pool that creates a warm spot in the sand against it. The bottom of the sand is usually wet but it gets drier the closer to the top.
I've also heard that it's good to go in and collapse their tunnels every once in a while so they can recreate them. I get sinkholes every now and again when tunnels collapse.

[Bridgitmac80]

Does it look like he's been eating on the exo?

I fix my sinkholes daily if I can account for all the crabs to be sure I don't cover one up. I'm not sure how safe the water heater is........never seen anyone use one in here. I would think that that type of heater would cause them to boil themselves. They could cook in the water (if they use it) or could burn themselves on the heater its self. Plus another problem is your heat isn't getting around the entire tank, just that one spot.

Which under tank heater do you have? What size is it? I have a 29g tank and 2 of the Villa brand UTH's the mini's. One on the center back of the tank and one on the left side of the tank (both on the outside) and my temp stays perfect upper 70's always. I've not had to unplug it or anything since I've had them on the tank (July 9 this year)

[megcolv]

I hemmed and hawwed over the water heater for a long time too. But I wanted to make sure that such a large pool was not just ice cold. It's low enough in the pool that they cant actually touch it, because the clay balls prevent them from sinking in the water more than a few centimeters or so. Its a turtle heater and doesn't go over 77 degrees so I'm pretty sure its ok. I've created a broad temperature gradient, I have gauges in 3 or 4 spots (depending on if they get moved or buried) and maintain a decent 75 degrees and 80-85%. My UTH is a zoomed extra large adhesive patch that I put along the backside of the tank. It sits above and below the sand line. I also use a heat lamp on occasion.

[Bridgitmac80]

Your temp and humidity is right on then. That's neat they can't get to it and touch the heater! So what are the clay balls you have? I will be swapping to deeper pools and can't think of what to put in there other than river rocks to help hold the ramp up.

Has your PP acted like he's interested in any more of the shells yet? Even after Toby finally changed last night, he is dragging around another shell with him like he's still shopping! Oh and if you use a shell shop, you could pick a few out and lay them about the sand like I had to do with Toby. Dunno if that actually helped or not

[megcolv]

No, Jerry is still very much in the soft stage. I'm giving him several days rest to destress and build up strength. Actually so is Charlie (my jumbo who is also in the ISO tank). I've put several shells in there, we'll see what happens, I'm still worried that Jerry wont be able to get to any shells because the shell is so heavy. I'll just keep a close eye and try to help him out if I can.

The clay balls are called Hydroballs by ZooMed. Here is a link to a page for it.
http://lllreptile.com/store/catalog/rep ... dro-balls/
You can get them at any pet store, the only problem I ran into is you have to use a lot and basically fill your pool to get enough surface for the crabs to walk on it. I tried putting them in my 1 gal fish tank and ended up having to weigh them down with heavier stones or it all floated!! So it's a trial and error type project. But overall I really like them.