Lost all limbs UPDATE**5/05/14

[CrabbyMom33]

They do seem to be dead right before they molt. I'd recommend that you be patient and leave him alone for a week. No peeking! Trust me, I know that takes a whole lot of patience and involves a whole lot of worry. Been there! If they were doing a normal molt they would stay down a whole lot longer than that. I think that leaving them alone for at least a week limits their stress and probably makes the outcome more likely to be positive.

Even after a week all I would do is a quick check and add in anything you can as substitute exo, then cover them back up. Since they will have less exo than a normal molt, but had to produce even more limbs than normal the extra substitute exo could help. If you have any leftover exo from other crabs that is perfect. When I do a deep clean I save any extra exo I find. Something like the crab eco Wolf sold in her store is also good. If you don't have either of those I'd go with something like egg shell.

Good luck!

[crabbienewb]

They do seem to be dead right before they molt. I'd recommend that you be patient and leave him alone for a week. No peeking! Trust me, I know that takes a whole lot of patience and involves a whole lot of worry. Been there! If they were doing a normal molt they would stay down a whole lot longer than that. I think that leaving them alone for at least a week limits their stress and probably makes the outcome more likely to be positive.

Even after a week all I would do is a quick check and add in anything you can as substitute exo, then cover them back up. Since they will have less exo than a normal molt, but had to produce even more limbs than normal the extra substitute exo could help. If you have any leftover exo from other crabs that is perfect. When I do a deep clean I save any extra exo I find. Something like the crab eco Wolf sold in her store is also good. If you don't have either of those I'd go with something like egg shell.

Good luck!

I did find lots of exo from all those other crabs he came with and i put it in there with him when i put him in his hole. (enough to make up about a crab and a half worth of exo his own that he shed would be there too) I'm worried that he might not be able to eat his exo if he didn't regenerate the limbs (he had a lp gel limb and a walking leg on the same side gel limb). But I guess a week or two with no food should be fine since hes been eating and drinking so much lately. I have this bad feeling that i am going to be doing another 2 months of qtip feedings if he comes out with only 2 limbs.

[CrabbyMom33]

If he comes out with enough limbs to get around I'd leave him in iso, but let him do his own thing even if the moving around is only a small amount. When my straw that is currently in iso molted her limbs were smaller than normal so I left her in the iso and she turned around and did a second molt in a few weeks. That's normal. Let's just hope yours molts with enough to get around on his own. Let's see what he has when he's done, but normally I'd suggest leaving them in iso through a second molt.

[crabbienewb]

Well I checked on him today, some good news, some bad news.

Good news! He molted.
Bad news.... He gained 1 limb. i think it's a walking leg. it's also deformed. it's the only limb he has.
good news! he's hardened off.
Bad news....he didn't touch any of the exo, not the extra i added, and not his own.
Good news! he's alive. I took him out and gave him water, he came out to drink. I put him in with other food and he ate.

I think he possibly can't eat his exo, since he didn't gain any pincers. I crushed all the other exo except his own because it's really thin and soft (it's like just the part that covered his body not legs).

I have no idea what is going on, why this crab has gone through so much and still holding on, yet had such a bad molt.For now i and just putting a bunch of ground up food at the bottom of a container and putting him on top and i have it shoved into he sand, so it's sorta like he's still in a cave, but he has food to eat. not sure if i should be taking him out for water or just give him a few more days to relax and eat. he wants water and food, or at least he ate and drank when offered.

[fraksocks]

If he was willing to eat and drink I would say that he probably needs to be given the opportunity to drink and replace his shell water/rinse out his shell at least once daily.

He will probably also benefit from you adding finely crushed up cuttle bone and/or other sources of calcium/exo building nutrient sources and adding it to his food daily.

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[CrabbyMom33]

Now sure why he didn't generate more limbs, but chances are good he's going to try for a quick molt to fix it. He's going to need every possible good food you can give him, with a priority on proteins and minerals. I'd add in some things like coconut and/or coconut oil as well.

[crabbienewb]

Now sure why he didn't generate more limbs, but chances are good he's going to try for a quick molt to fix it. He's going to need every possible good food you can give him, with a priority on proteins and minerals. I'd add in some things like coconut and/or coconut oil as well.

i have coconut and coconut oil and fish oil, would all of those help? Should i just put food in a bowl and set him on it, that way he can eat very easily?

im not sure what his deal is though, he's in there now with food and hes not eating it, but if i take him out and put him on my hand and put food on it he will eat it. the same food. Why? is he sleeping and im waking him up? it sounds really dumb but he does this and it's weird.

[fraksocks]

Could it be the angle that you are placing him at while he's in your hand? If he doesn't have enough limbs to prop himself up and you are just placing him on top of the food maybe he doesn't feel comfortable.
I know I remember a thread (I think it was Rocky's maybe) where they injured crab wouldn't drink or "play" around in their daily water bath if it was put in there iso but only if the container was placed somewhere outside of the tank and the crab was given privacy.

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[crabbienewb]

Could it be the angle that you are placing him at while he's in your hand? If he doesn't have enough limbs to prop himself up and you are just placing him on top of the food maybe he doesn't feel comfortable.
I know I remember a thread (I think it was Rocky's maybe) where they injured crab wouldn't drink or "play" around in their daily water bath if it was put in there iso but only if the container was placed somewhere outside of the tank and the crab was given privacy.

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I do angle him in a way that he will be able to eat as easily as possible when in the tank, he seems to just not like eating in the ISO, or maybe I just don't see when he's eating, he did this before the molt too, would eat a very noticible amount while i had him out of the iso in a smaller tank on my table, but once i moved him back to iso he didn't seem to touch it.

I wish i could figurre out a way to offer him water in the tank easier. I put a cap with some water but i don't really think he can get to it, he's so small i can't figure out a way to offer food and water in the tank within his reach. maybe i should just keep him in a super super shallow water (fresh), with his food offered on a shell, that way he could still drink other times other than the 4 times a day i would take him out,and can't possible drown.

[crabbienewb]

He is unfortunately streaking again. I haven't been able to get him reshelled, I can get him into it, but he will come right back out a few minutes later, I am unsure why, but this is the exact same thing he did before (a couple weeks after his initial attack). I have him sitting in a shell, and he's eating, but he's not wearing it right, he's still curled up abdomen not attached to the shell just sitting in it like a chair. The only difference is that I know he's not premolt right now. This doesn't seem like it's going to go well for him, as i was hoping his last streaking may have been a lot of why he took so long to molt and had a bad molt, and now he's doing it again. This has been going on since this morning.

(he's got nothing on him irritating him, nothing in his shell either, and i have other shells offered to him). I don't think/know if he could reshell on his own if/when i have to leave him for the night. He's got just the 1 limb a walking leg that is deformed (it has a hook on the end and it's very thin).

[wyldaeval]

For offering food and calcium that he can easily eat, you might try using a coffee bean grinder, a new one with no coffee residue. You can powder the egg shell, cuttle bone, dry shrimp, and other dry food sources and maybe add coconut oil or honey to make them stick to whatever you're feeding him with. I did that with one of mine and he was able to eat everything. Just a suggestion. I hope he pulls off a good molt and gets stronger. Sending positive healing thoughts to him. Also, regarding the honey bath he gave himself, I'm wondering if it was to help him heal? Honey has antibacterial properties and may be a good way for him to retain moisture...maybe?

[Nia]

Idk if this is it but he maybe getting ready to molt again. They can pull back to back ones and maybe this is his plan to help him get his other legs back. Can they get a type of skin irritation? I ask cause of the honey bath if this was his intention to heal himself. Maybe try a smaller lighter shell? Poor Boo our thoughts are always with you guys and we hope that he feels better really soon. Hang in there lil guy .

[CrabbyMom33]

I have to agree with you that it doesn't sound very good. You have done a fantastic job, so just keep doing what you've been doing and the rest is really up to the crab. We can only do so much, but they have to have the will AND have injuries from which they are actually able to recover. Hang in there.

Also, to add to wyldaeval's idea on crushing food, I used an inexpensive mortar and pestal and that was great to grind things to a powder.

[crabbienewb]

I got a coffee grinder a few months back for the crabs, so all his food has been put in the grinder. I ground down like every nut and seed on the safe foods list lol.

He seems to have reshelled. He kept going in it but coming out.....he would shell when i put him in to drink, so he could cling on and hang out to drink, but when id put him in to eat, or just otherwise he would end up climbing out. But last night to now he has stayed IN the shell without leaving it. He's back into the original shell he came here in. Not sure why he was streaking, but watching him do it he seemed to be trying to do something, he was crawling/attempting to. doesn't seem like he just wants to die, he knew enough to not streak into his water bowl. Unsure if he has some damages that he can't recover from though.

[curlysister]

I hadn't been on in a couple of weeks, and am happy to hear your little guy is still hanging in there! You are awesome for putting so much time and effort into his care - you are the little guy's hero!