Mites

[HermieLove19]

I don't understand why they need to appear like that.

[Carrie]

Oh no... my biggest crab ever, Aleta the Great One... she left her shell 2x after she molted and I never knew why. I figured it was that the iso tank, being set up as a reg. tank (w/ heat and humidity like the big main tank) for Claude the Clawless One, might've gotten too hot, or else she was just stressed and left her shell. She was so big that she was having a rough recovery--she couldn't move the shell she had on b/c it was too heavy. I put her in a lighter-weight shell when she left the first one... and she left that one about a week and a half later. It was her second molt--she was the first really big crab to molt ONCE and survive, and also the first to molt a second time and survive. I'm still trying to solve the puzzle of her death. She never wanted to eat after her molt like they usually do, exo, cuttlebone, shrimp, or anything at all. And she was really kind of listless, too. I put her back in the lightweight shell when I saw her "naked" again... but everything was too much for her and she died. Probably just before I put her in the shell again. She wouldn't go in a shell for anything. I put her (still alive) w/ the shell in the big water dish and she probably died right around then, b/c when she suddenly stopped moving entirely I put her in the shell as a last resort... but I sort of felt she was gone. Maybe this explains her death. It was the mites attacking her inside the shell and not so much anything I did or didn't do. The bigger the crab, the rougher the molt, anyway. There have been no other molts since the mass molt in March.

I'm glad I took the other 8 little guys out of the big tank now, as of last night. They're enjoying the smaller tank but there's so many of them and it's half the size. They're all the same size and they're competitive about shells. Except for AK, who's the biggest... but she will go after anyone bigger (Aleta) and everyone smaller, too.

Thanks for the info. Aleta was with me for over 2 yrs and I miss her... and I've been wondering what I did wrong all this time. Maybe it was really the mites. I'm assuming they came around earlier on this summer, after I changed the substrate back to "jungle earth" from CalciSand, after the mass molt--the one wk in March where everyone molted and half weren't ready to. Today I'm going to get a smaller bag of earth and mix it w/ more beach sand than I used to have.

[krabby_katie]

I'm having a mass molt right now. Only one is left up... Poor Mr. Krabs. He must be soooo lonely. 8 of mine are down right now (I think. I can't find Calypso). They all went down within about 2 weeks. Even my large crab, Darla, went down last night. I hope she makes it! I'm sorry about your crabs that passed. That would have been rough. I've had some of mine for 2 months tomorrow, and I don't know what I would do without some of them, mostly Xena. She has quite the personality.

[Carrie]

I have a theory that the mass molts are weather-related. B/c, at least in my case, about half of the crabs weren't ready to molt--they'd either recently molted already or were too big to be molting yet. They were under the same conditions in March as in summer 2005... the "hurricane year." This year's weather has already been strange and it started during the period of this year's mass molt; in 2005 it ran parallel to all the hurricanes (each molter got named after them, a tradition that I continue now--hope to name the Miscellany this summer). I notice you're from Canada. In theory the mass molts are due to barometric pressure. (Another phone call to FMR in 2005--hermit crabs are more inclined to molt when the barometric pressure drops). A mass molt is triggered, then, (in theory!) by an extreme or lengthy barometric pressure change. Lots of precipitation. There was a small mass molt (4 out of 6) in Jan 2003 and there was a huge snowstorm just before then. It's just a theory but I'm trying to get info on molting patterns like this from everyone.

Good luck w/ your "mass molt"... wow! Your one remaining guy is probably enjoying the peace and quiet! Most of the little guys dig under when they molt. The bigger ones seem to dig first and then come up and molt in this little area I call the Swamp (a tray filled w/ earth and sea sponges that's always got water in it). Either next to it, under it (the little guys) or in it. Those are the ones who survive, too...

Moments like those... I up the humidity a little since everyone is molting. The exo needs all that moisture to be able to slide off. And anybody not molting gets to go in iso. (Arwen goes into iso more than the molters!). Then the main tank becomes the iso tank.. and they get switched from that tank to iso depending on who's molted and who hasn't. And Arwen the Obnoxious moves accordingly as well. At one point she was in my iso area of last resort for a while: my bed. (Now that she's learned that "down" is more fun she escapes and that doesn't work anymore).

Another theory... when they need to molt and they find 'ideal' conditions (after the journey to the pet shop and the time there) several might molt, too. The longer we have them the more the molting cycle depends on us... but right out of the pet shop, they're kind of in an interrupted molting cycle state, I think. Once the conditions are right... molting is in part a nutritional/growth cycle and in part conditional. Both have to be working together at the same time. In many cases in pet shops the molters die b/c they can't molt due to sudden lack of heat/humidity, or they molt and get attacked due to the overcrowding.

Mass molts are so stressful!! All the crab-mom worries at once. Good luck!!

[krabby_katie]

Thanks. The weather has been weird I guess... Yesterday it was thundering when it was sunny. Then the storm evetually came, and it would down pour for about 10 seconds, then completely stop. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. But most of them have been down for a couple of weeks. Now Darla will be under for about 3 months.... I can't put Krabs in iso though, because I have my surface molter (who's exo got eaten, and hasn't hardened up yet) is in there.

[Carrie]

The weird weather I'm looking for would be hurricane seasons like 2005, things that last for months and represent a low barometric pressure that affects the whole region or country for a length of time... some of the hurricanes came up the Mississipi that year and hit us as huge rainstorms that lasted for days and caused flooding. This yr we had a chain of snowstorms and then a series of evere thunderstorms and rainstormst that caused flooding all around the Midwest. Just my little theory I'm working on.

I was on a mailing list a few yrs ago and someone was trying to prove the bit about spring molts. The spring and summer molters seem to have the easist time.

Now I'm trying to figure out if the mites are affecting the molters, since my biggie Aleta died. Lady at the pet store told me they don't normally irritate the animals, but she has some spiders and not hermit crabs. I'm not thinking it's the same thing at all. I thought I was imagining the moving specks at first... but if Aleta was already weak it's possible they could've attacked her, if they already go for the soft parts of a hermit crab. I didn't see any on her at all, when she was out of her shell both times, either.

All you buried crabs AND one in iso already? Kind of like me right now--w/ everyone in the iso tank b/c of the mites and Claude the Clawless One living on the bed for now instead of his own now-full tank. It's tricky when your iso tank is already in use! And sometimes the molters also go after one another, if one molts a few days ahead of another. That crab might recover and then go for the more recent moltee's exo or shell, so be careful there. Having had the mass molts, one thing that works is taking the top half of a plastic 2 liter bottle, or something smaller, like a 20 oz spring-water sized bottle, and putting that over the newest molter for a few days. Make sure it's firmly in the substrate as the others might try to dig to get in. The open cap-top ensures that the crab gets air. That way you don't have to move the crab for the crucial days after the molt, as well.

I'm baking the "jungle earth" before i put it in the tank b/c I'm pretty sure the mites probably date back to getting the last batch of substrate after the mass molt in March. I've been taking the big water dish out for Claude and that's why I eventually noticed there were THINGS crawling on it. My eyes being what they are for a little while I thought I was seeing things.

[krabby_katie]

We had the biggest flood since the 80s this spring. And there was this big hurricane heading over here, or something. We don't get hurricanes of tornados, so I don't know what else would cause this. No, I have a surface molter in the iso, and everyone else molting in the main tank. I can never catch them before they god to molt, because these are my first molts. I tried the bottle thing, and some got past it before. That's how Hubert and Xena got dug up. They were okay though, and went back under. They hadn't shed their exos yet. I'm hoping someone will come up soon!

[Carrie]

If you want to... PM me about how they got their names. I was reading them and I sort of wonder... esp. Jorgen von Strangle? I had one named Mean LIttle S**t b/c I kept yelling that at him. He was responsible for two de-shellings. Trouble is they molt and change shells and they're so hard to tell apart, beyond the sizes. There are 2 bigger ones and then 4 are very close in size and 2 little ones... and then AK, who will attack anyone bigger or smaller just b/c they're there.

I've placed some of the bigger tank rocks around the bottle in there b/c they will all try to get to the exo. And having a LOT of BabyShrimp in the tank seems to settle them down a bit b/c it's kind of like getting a taste of exo. Some of the molters have had to be isolated this way due to a few molting at once or not wanting to move the. One form of iso for the others involves simply removing AK.

Big changes in barometric pressure from what you're talking about, like we've had during my mass moltings... hmmm. Floods count b/c it has to rain a lot which means the pressure has to dip either a lot or for several days or longer. I wasn't counting floods until this spring.

Yeah... surface molters get iso to themselves. Then the main tank is "iso" for the others if they're all molting. That's happened. Then depending on who molts first or recovers first or digs up first... or whatever... they get moved around. I have a third travel carrier I can pull into service if needed (currently everyone is in it while I replace the substrate b/c of the mites... er... original topic).
I don't like doing this b/c I had to dig up two crabs but while they are probably pre-molt there's only one I think might really molt pretty soon. Well, that one and AK. Most of them molted in March's mass molt--it's the others who're going to molt next. And AK is due. The bigger the crab, the longer the time in between molts, except if you have an AK, who's super-active and eats constantly. She's twice the size of the others or more, but molts twice as often. I think the extra baths they're getting might be sort of equal to getting to hide under the water dish for a few days anyway. By tomorrow nite the main tank should be ready again... and I will put those two back where I found them and moisten the substrate to what it was like where they were when they'd dug in...

As always, good luck!

[krabby_katie]

I'm getting a bigger tank asap. If anyone comes up, I'll move them to there. I can't wait. I want everyone to come up.... now! I miss them all so much.

[HermieLove19]

All my crabs came up a within a few days of each other.Each day I saw someone new! it was like christmas!