I'm Losing All My Crabs -- Why?

[Guest]

I'm never buying another hermit crab, and once these ones die (which I know the little jerks are just waiting to do) I'm packing up the tank and relaxing. Mr Strawberry left his shell 2 days ago and died sometime last night or this morning. We are down to 7 from 17, all within the last 4 to 5 months. I have changed substrates, cleaned/boiled everything, not brought in any new guys since April I think when I got the straws, they have plenty of shells and food and fresh/salt waters and temp and humidity gauges, etc etc and still they keep dying! Usually they slow down for a couple days, leave the shell, and then end up dead within a day or two. This after being healthy-looking and active for months. I have had it. I feel so guilty that they were plucked from their home beaches just to come to Iowa to die. I guess I am just venting here because I feel frustrated. I don't know what else I can do for them. I read about others having crabs for years, and I can only manage MONTHS.

[Nicole]

I'm sorry to hear about your crabs! *HUGS* I know that you are not the only person that this has happened to, and I'm sure it is very depressing. Have they all been exotic crabs, or have some of the PPs died too? PPs seem to be the hardiest species. My four non-PPs had very odd deaths. I know you love your hermies, and you're doing the best you can. As long as you can rule out a chemical exposure of some sort that would be causing this (exterminator? bug spray? air fresheners?), it may not be anything that you are doing or not doing.

[Guest]

Thank you (((everyone)))I haven't had any chemical exposures or anything else I can place my finger on. I've taken the very best care of them that I could, and have followed all the advice I could find here and on the web. I got the first two in January and for the first few months all was good...I added crabs slowly, ISOing them first...but still the unexplained deaths.Hermitrocker, thanks, but I think you live on the east coast and I'm in Iowa. Char, I don't want to give them up, but I almost feel like a failure and lately I don't even want to give any advice on here because what the heck do I know, my crabs keep dying! I know what we're SUPPOSED to do for them, and I do all that...no expense has been spared on the little devils and they have the very best of everything...yet still. Slowly they die off, one every few weeks or so. Most of them just slow down and then leave the shell, and then die.Nicole, 2 of the 10 that have died were PPs. One was one of the original two from the mall that started all this hermit crab madness, and I took it kind of hard! I lost my 2 indos, 2 PPs, 2 straws, 3 rugs, and now my cav. I have 1 straw, 2 rugs, and 4 PPs now. Three of the remaining guys just had successful molts and one is down now, hopefully molting and not dying...ugghh...I just feel like a failure, which bothers me because it all started off so well! I've spent I don't know how much money on them and I feel like the poor devils got the best care, but still they got ripped from their homes only to die.

[JediMasterThrash]

Another couple of questions are:Where did you get the crabs? (you mentioned some were from the mall. Crabs kept in horrible conditinos might have been worn down so much that they won't survive long after, even if you provide them the best conditions).How much interaction do you have with them? Do you regularly touch them, take them out, move them, or bath them? I recommend no handling whatsoever for several months until the crabs have fully had a chance to destress and recover from the aformentioned poor petstore conditions.Everyone has deaths, and they're not all something to worry too much about. If you have deaths under the surface (usually you only find these during deep clean), then they usually are from unsuccessful molts. These can be leftover problems from long past poor petstore conditions, or just minor imperfections (hard to nail down). If crabs purchased in the last month die, that can also be directly from pet store PPS.It's really only a major warning sign if you have surface deaths, especially if they are unexpected.If you see crabs hanging out by the water dish way more often than normal, it can indicate they're going to molt, but it can also indicate problems trying to start molting. Sometimes you'll find these crabs grow lethargic in the water and die, and it can be attributed to molting problems, or gill problems or dehydration.If you see a crab grow considerably weaker/lethargic (a weak/lethargic crab is different than just an inactive crab) for about a weak before death, that could just mean it's their time (sometimes happens to old jumbos), or it could also be the "gas" issue.So if you can attribute your deaths to PPS or molting difficulties, then you're not too bad off. Everyone has those. People have different theories about food/water/substrate conditions to improve molting success. But if you're got regular abnormal deaths, then something is amiss, you just have to identify it.Here's a few things to check:Temperature or Humidity fluctuations. Even if they're in a good range, does it go up and down by 10% or more every day or so?Water quality. If you don't have a 2 or 3 stage filter, are you changing your water at least every week (preferrably every 1 or 2 days), and cleaning the bowls? (I'll assume you're using dechlor. Is the water direct from the tap? I recommend using a pur/brita filter on the tap to clean it, or using bottled spring water.Food quality. Are you replacing the food once every few days, and cleaning the bowl? Don't let the food sit too long. It gets moist and spoils.Also, food variety. Feed them some different options, like dried shrimp/plankton/bloodworms, fruit&flower food, fish flakes, and fresh fruit and veggies and grains. And some calci-sand or cuttlebone for added calcium.Mold. Check to make sure there isn't any mold on any organics in contact with the substrate. Look for signs of mildew on the sides of the tank.Temperature - prior thinking suggested even 68o was ok, but new thinking suggests temperature is even more important. Try to raise it to 75 to low 80s.And as I mentioned before, I recommend no contact for the first month, and minimal contact after that. This includes bathing.I don't know if this has any affect, but when I get new crabs, I ISOd them for a few weeks immediately without any contact, but then before I put them in the main tank, I gave them a stress-coat bath (the only bath the crabs get except during hte 6-month deepclean). Recent threads are questioning the usefulnes of stress-coat, but hey, who knows.Just some thoughts. If you do decide to give up crabbing, I suggest adopting them out to members, rather than simply reserving them to a presumed eventual death.

[Guest]

Let's see if I can answer all the questions and not miss any.Temp and humidity are 70-80, both consistently. I've not seen it fluctuate any more than that. I use sand on one side and EE on the other. Some crabs molt in the sand side, some in the EE side. I've only ever had one under-the-surface death that I thought was a molt gone wrong. All the rest have been a progressive weakening and usually leaving the shell before just dying.I use dechlor tap water, salt (IO) and regular, and they are changed every other day or so with cleaning the bowls. I also clean out the food bowls every couple days or so. My crabs appear to be very finicky. They never touch bloodworms, dried baby shrimp, brine shrimp, or anything else stinky except the JurassiDiet food. I guess they don't "do" stinky, LOL. The one thing that will get them into the food dish without fail is Crab Island Fruit N Flower food. I mix it with the regular Crab Island food so they get a bit more variety. Fresh foods usually go untouched. This includes lettuce, fruit, etc. Occasionally one or two will sample a banana. They do love Honey Nut Cheerios and unsalted popcorn with peanut butter as an occasional treat. They are rarely touched, other than to move them around if I'm cleaning or to do a shell count to see if everyone is still alive. I haven't added any new crabs since I think April, when I got the straws. The straws were ISO'd for a couple of weeks. My ISO is a 10gal and honestly they looked healthy and active and CRAMPED in there, so after a couple weeks I moved them into the 40g breeder. Perhaps someone at some point brought in some slow-moving disease, but I have a hard time thinking it's that when it's now October and some of them are still alive? As for where they came from, the first two were from the mall. That was before I knew anything about hermit crab care. One of those two is still alive. The next four came from PetsMart. Three of those four are still alive. All six of those are/were PPs. All the rest (there were at one point 17) came from Petco and were exotics--rugs, straws, indos, and a cav. One of the straws and two of the rugs is still alive. I went to two different Petcos in the area. Two from one store and one from the other are still alive.I can try boosting the temp a bit more as you suggested. Other than that I don't know what else to try. As I mentioned, I thought perhaps there was some type of bacteria or something in the substrate that was killing them slowly so I changed EVERYTHING and threw out what couldn't be boiled. They have aquarium rocks and vines to climb on but no more wood. I don't bathe them and haven't for months, since I got pools deep enough for them to do it themselves. That's been at least since March I think. Plenty of shells in a variety of sizes, I don't know...I have two sets of guages, analog and digital so I can kind of check one against the other. So I can't see really that I'm doing anything wrong but nevertheless, I'm not having a lot of success!Don't worry, I'm not giving up on their care because I expect them to die. I still do all their tank care and watering and feeding, etc. I may be pleasantly surprised and still have crabs this time next year--who knows? I see that Dr Evil just molted and changed shells, and Plankton (who was my micro, but is now a "small") recently finished his fourth successful molt with me. (I've had him since Feb.) Let's hope that all these deaths settle down. I know one thing, though, and that's that I'm not buying any more crabs ever. I feel too guilty.

[JediMasterThrash]

A while back we'd analyzed several crab deaths that seemed to involve a bloated abdomen.We called it "gas", i.e. like when you eat taco bell...There could be some environmental issue or disease that causes them to build up water/waste/toxins in their abdomen and eventually kills them. Noone really knows for sure.You'll notice the crab hang out far from his shell a lot becuase his abdomen is too large to fit like it used too, and also very sensitive and needs to be kept cool and out of contact of other things.

[Guest]

Oh, I meant to ask that too! Although I have not noticed any unusual bloating of the ones that have left the shell. All their abdomens look pretty normal, no shriveling or bloating or any noticeable mold or fungus or sore spots or anything...believe me I've looked. And it's hard for me to look because few things are as creepy as a naked dead crab upside-down with the places where the legs join the body just staring me in the face...*shudder*