Varuna - dead?

[Wai]

I have just returned to Australia from my one week stay in Hong Kong. Orcus had surfaced from his moult with all of his limbs. However, under the piece of mopani wood, I found Varuna hanging loosely from her shell. I can pull her out of her shell, though I am scared in case she is alive. She is not releasing any odours and her eyes are in the upright "alive" position, but she appears to be hanging dead. I have heard from Marie of suspected dead crabs miraculously twitching, or that they were just about to surface moult. How long do these surface moulters remain limp before throwing their exo off?

Varuna was very active to begin with and survived her first moult. She may have been preparing to moult a second time recently and buried herself for a few weeks. However, one day, I found Haumea running around on the surface with Varuna's shell. Varuna was no-where to be seen, so I dug around where I last saw Varuna and found her in the shell that Haumea last wore. Ever since that suspected shell fight, Varuna has been dormant. I dug her a moulting nest in the iso and placed her in it, but she dug herself out after two days and reburied under the food dish. A few more days later, I found her sitting next to the plastic plant and decided to return her to the main tank, in case she didn't like burying herself in the iso. Once she was back in the main tank, she didn't bury herself again. Before I left the house for the airport, I held Varuna for a few minutes, but she didn't peek out of her shell once. Now I think she has died.

I am hoping that she is just falling limp as a pre-moult symptom, but to be honest, I think the butterflies have taken her away. I will leave her in the iso until I am absolutely sure that she has passed away.

[ladybug15057]

This is a hard one Wai and normally patience is the key. (right, easier for one to advise by typing and very hard to do oneself.)
My daughters SnowMan (PP) was dormant for 2 months prior to molting. He was the one who when he did molt a couple days later smelled very dead. I did a drop of water and he was the one who barely twitched. If I would of blinked, I would of missed it.
My Cuddles (E) was in a 'frozen/loose' type position for 2 weeks... no odor and looked dead but her eyes were not hollow. I would suggest since you just got home, give her a spell yet and observe her closely. Good Luck!

[CrabbyJo]

Good luck, Wai. I think we are so fortunate to have Marie, who can help us to be calm and just wait it out. We have to keep reminding ourselves that sometimes things just take a long time with hermies, and thank goodness to have someone who has been there!
My thoughts are with you and little Varuna.

[Wai]

My Cuddles (E) was in a 'frozen/loose' type position for 2 weeks... no odor and looked dead but her eyes were not hollow. I would suggest since you just got home, give her a spell yet and observe her closely. Good Luck!

That is exactly what Varuna is doing at the moment. Did Cuddles have her eyes in the upright position? Varuna's eyes are not hollow, but they are covered with cataracts and reflect the light well. Did Cuddles end up moulting, or just returned to her ordinary self?

[ladybug15057]

Cuddles eyes were cloudy and her eye stalks were upright in almost normal position. What I mean by almost normal is as opposed to the usual parallel position |_| they were more \_/ position. She stayed like this for almost 2 weeks and did molt. Just one day when I looked her antenna were all wrinkled and crossed and she looked absolutely horrible. Her eye stalks were down and her coloring wasn't good... I wasn't sure what was going on so I waited a couple hours and looked again. She had molted!!
Wai the waiting and patience is HARD!!

[Wai]

I will definitely wait, Marie. I woke up this morning hoping that Varuna's suspected death was all a nightmare... but she's still there, unmoving. However, since she does not smell at all, I have my hopes up. Back then, would you have been able to pull Cuddles out of her shell?

[ladybug15057]

For the way she looked, I think so. Due to being paranoid of harming her if she was in premolt or molting (which at the time I did not know for sure) I didn't even try, I didn't touch her at all. Knowing hermies need darkness for the molting hormones to totally 'kick in', I kept the area where she was in the shadows/darkness. I moved an ocean and fresh water source right next to her in case she wanted/needed it and changed it regularly.

[Wai]

Being anxious, I did try moving Varuna's limbs and body yesterday, but I have since left her alone. I hope I didn't harm her.

[emmac350]

All of this talk about crabs looking like that makes me wonder whether my Shaq was truly dead. He was one of my original 3 PPs (who never stayed more than 2 for an extended period of time) and the morning after buying him, I found him at the edge of the tank, looking out of the glass. His eyestalks were still in an 'up' position, and I didn't bother smelling him as he was not in a 'normal crab position' and he didn't respond to any movement on my part. He didn't move when we picked him up, either, but he didn't even fall out of the shell when I did pick him up (which should have clued me into something not being quite right).

Unfortunately, as I wasn't going to be able to go back to the pet store for a week to get the 'pet died' replacement thingie, I put him in the freezer to preemptively avoid smelling up the apartment. I might've killed one of my first pet crabs. I wish I would have had this information back then!

[anniehorsekrab]

Don't feel bad Emma... I might've done the same thing with ShyBoy.