Tips for beginning a deep clean with crabs down

beka · Post by **beka** » Fri Jan 17, 2014 10:30 am

So some of you may remember that I've had half my crabs MIA since August/September. Well feb marks a year since my last deep clean. That's too long for my 40gal... I have all of my med-large crabs up and the rest haven't been seen in months. I'm assuming they are all dead. I know that tiny-small molt frequently but not that frequently. There is no way they can hide so completely from me for almost 6mths. My temp has been totally stable since nov (not that it dropped dangerously prior to that either) and I've continued to offer enticing foods that smell funky and are crabbilicious...So how should I begin? One side or across the top? Idk, anything anyone feels is a good way to go about this slowly will be greatly appreciated. Even though it looks clean and smells fine it's just been too long and I'm afraid I've got crabs living in and on a graveyard.

Laurie LeAnn · Post by **Laurie LeAnn** » Fri Jan 17, 2014 5:12 pm

I had a crab that was gone for 4 months, I just started going from one end of the tank and taking small scoops of your substrate and checking it for crabs. Poor their water in the shell make sure they are not still alive..I mean you will know if they are dead , dead fish smell! But they can live on their exo shell for awhile. If they are dead get as much of the dead crab out you can then boil the shell and keep it you can also start from the top and work down. It might not smell from from above but the layers under might get funky smelling. I have went over a yr before

Geranium · Post by **Geranium** » Sat Jan 18, 2014 5:56 am

I started by setting up the new tank (you could use the ISO) and putting everyone who was up in it. Then I removed everything that wasn't buried and then started by skimming off the top layers, maybe 1/4 inch at a scoop. I threw out the top inch layer. The next layer I kept to seed the new tank. When I found tunnels I followed them. I moved slowly and gently especially when I found shells. I found 2 live crabs that I was sure were dead, a dead body that was expected but was not smelly, a shell whose body was completely gone and an unexpected death who made the whole floor of the house stink and almost caused my younger daughter to be sick. It took me hours and was very tiring. I cleaned out a 30 & 40 and set up a 55 & the 40, ended up with extreme repetitive motion injury pain in my wrist so be careful as you work.

jenok · Post by **jenok** » Sat Jan 18, 2014 8:45 am

If you find any still alive and not completely done with a molt(not hardened or done with exo) make sure to keep them separate from the others in iso covered so its dark.

beka · Post by **beka** » Thu Jan 30, 2014 3:32 am

so here is my update after the cleaning….all went pretty well considering how it could have been.with a potential of 13 crabs total i still have 9! that may sound bad to some, but 1 micro i never saw after purchasing and his mate that i bought at the same time only resurfaced once in sept and then seemed to be gone. i didn't find any remains from either, just the shells buried and empty.most of the big guys are still around but we knew that anyway, having 7 up at the time of cleaning. i accidentally uncovered a tiny who was mid-molt, but molts almost monthly. he looked ok, however he was missing his BP and it wasn't anywhere near him, so… but he is in iso and will be fine I'm sure.we did find 2 remains of what i think was a small/med sized E and a smaller E, if i am right about who is left, then we lost Hermie 10 and Ms. Claus from reading in the past, i felt their legs and it seems neither successfully completed their last molt. their legs were crisp and hollow. the strange thing is that they must have ditched their shells prior to since there was not one around either body.anyway, i feel pretty good about it. thanks you guys for your support!