??? HELP ???

[stEveY13]

I am really confused. one of my crabs is always half way out of his shell and his anttenas/feelers are reaaallllyy short. What going on?

[CrabbyJo]

Stevey, can you tell us your tank conditions? We need more information from you in order to help determine what the problem may be.

What kind of tank do you have, and what size is it?

How many crabs do you have?

Do you have a thermometer? What is the temperature in the tank?

Do you have a humidity gauge? What is the humidity level?

What kind of substrate do you have?

What kind of foods do you feed your crab?

Do you provide both dechlorinated fresh water and ocean salt water to your crab?

Are your water dishes deep enough to submerge in?

Do you have a heat source on your tank?
If so, what is it and where is it located?

If you can answer these questions for us, we can start figuring out why your crab is hanging out of his shell.

[stEveY13]

Stevey, can you tell us your tank conditions? We need more information from you in order to help determine what the problem may be.

What kind of tank do you have, and what size is it? Stevey- 12 gallons, and a rectangular clear tank

How many crabs do you have? stevey- i own 6 hermies

Do you have a thermometer? What is the temperature in the tank? Stevey- Yes and about 73 degrees

Do you have a humidity gauge? What is the humidity level? stevey- yes and about 75 percent

What kind of substrate do you have? Stevey- coconut/peat moss

What kind of foods do you feed your crab? Stevey- celery,hemry pellets,hbh crab bites

Do you provide both dechlorinated fresh water and ocean salt water to your crab? Stevey- not the salted water, because it killed my last hermie... but i do supply the fresh water

Are your water dishes deep enough to submerge in? Stevey- YES

Do you have a heat source on your tank? If so, what is it and where is it located? Stevey- yes i do and on top of the crabitat

If you can answer these questions for us, we can start figuring out why your crab is hanging out of his shell.

[stEveY13]

thanks for alll the help!! i hope we can solve this problem!!

[emmac350]

Stevey, can you tell us your tank conditions? We need more information from you in order to help determine what the problem may be.

What kind of tank do you have, and what size is it? Stevey- 12 gallons, and a rectangular clear tank

How many crabs do you have? stevey- i own 6 hermies

Do you have a thermometer? What is the temperature in the tank? Stevey- Yes and about 73 degrees

Do you have a humidity gauge? What is the humidity level? stevey- yes and about 75 percent

What kind of substrate do you have? Stevey- coconut/peat moss

What kind of foods do you feed your crab? Stevey- celery,hemry pellets,hbh crab bites

Do you provide both dechlorinated fresh water and ocean salt water to your crab? Stevey- not the salted water, because it killed my last hermie... but i do supply the fresh water

Are your water dishes deep enough to submerge in? Stevey- YES

Do you have a heat source on your tank? If so, what is it and where is it located? Stevey- yes i do and on top of the crabitat

If you can answer these questions for us, we can start figuring out why your crab is hanging out of his shell.

1. Your temperature sounds a bit on the low side (try to keep it 75 or so - 73 is a bit chilly for tropical animals like crabs), but it doesn't appear to be the cause of your problem - too cold will make hermies go dormant, not hang out of their shells.

2. If your substrate contains peat moss, get rid of it. If you want to use coconut fiber, use only a brand that states that it is 100% coconut fiber (also known as coir) only. No peat moss, no cypress, no pine, etc. I cannot find details as to why peat moss is bad, although a little bit of research has shown that it is extremely acidic (can eat through human bones, which are primarily calcium as are our crabs' exoskeletons) and extremely absorptive, which can dry crabs out. If anyone else knows exactly why the crabs can't have peat moss beyond what I said here, I'd love to know!

3. Your crabs need a lot more than celery and commercial foods. Both of the foods you list contain either ethoxyquin or Copper sulfate, both of which are preservatives and insecticides that can kill crabs after even a small bit of exposure. Your crabs need protein and calcium primarily, along with fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, and cellulose sources. They also need variety - crabs are much less likely to eat something if they ate it within a week of your offering it. There is a TON of information about what your crabs can eat at Epicurean Hermit and a food group breakdown at Hermit Crab Cuisine. Any kind of non-seasoned meat you eat is perfectly safe for your crabs - beef, turkey, chicken, pork, seafood, etc. Just make sure that it isn't seasoned, so lunch meats and bacon are both unsafe. It's also important to give them some shellfish (shrimps, crab, scallops, etc.) on a fairly regular basis as this is what they would eat in the wild fairly often. If you don't want to buy fresh stuff and freeze it (make sure you at least steam the shellfish before offering it as the crabs could catch some diseases from it if it's raw) you can buy dried shrimp, krill, plankton, and any number of types of dried bugs at the pet store in the fish food section. These are also all safe as long as the ingredients list states "100% dried ________________ only" where the line is whatever the product is. The jars you can buy there will last a long time, so they're a pretty good deal.

4. Sounds like you bought into the "hermit crab water conditioner" sets. This entire set (both the fresh water and the salt water products) will kill your crabs. You need to either buy a quality dechlorinator like API that removes both chlorine and heavy metals or buy your crabs distilled water jugs at the grocery store. If you offer the right salt water, it will make all the difference to your crabs. If they aren't offered an ocean water, they have to recycle their urine to get the right mineral balance in their shell water. Go to the fish section and buy a salt water mix intended for salt water fish aquariums (it'll usually be Oceanic or Instant Ocean). Mix it up as per the instructions on the back and offer that for your crabs...I adopted two guys who were always offered water treated with that awful 'hermit crab water conditioner' set and when I gave them distilled water and ocean water, they ran to the bowls. The problem with the 'hermit crab salt water conditioner' is twofold - it provides a table salt form of salinity which is toxic to crabs and on top of that doesn't even provide most of the minerals they need from their salt water, and it loses its salinity over the course of a few hours. So there is no benefit to using it at all - just drawbacks.

I hope this helps...I know it sounds like a lot, but the things I touched on are the biggest problem areas I can see in your tank. A lot of the products out there that are marketed for hermit crabs (and that most of us bought back when we were just starting out crabbing) are actually harmful to crabs and can easily kill them.

[ladybug15057]

A little reading for peat moss, which much of the Sphagnum moss sold is:

http://crabbywiki.com/tiki-index.php?page=Sphagnum+Moss

Where as it is important to have a warmer end to the tank, substrate temp of about 78-80*F, one must also have a cooler end to the substrate too of about 71-73*. Hermies are cold blooded creatures and must have the option of both to regulate their body heat.

[CrabbyJo]

These ladies have great advice for you Stevie, let us know if you're able to make the changes and how things go!

woops, one more thing: about your tank, you say it's 12 gallons (a good size) and clear - I don't know of any glass tanks that are usually 12 gallons, would it happen to be plastic? If it is, it may be difficult to maintain a good temperature and humidity.

IF it is plastic, you can cover the holes all over the lid with some plastic wrap like you use in the kitchen, just leave a little uncovered. This will help keep your humidity more stable while you work on bringing up the temp in the tank.

If it is glass, what kind of lid do you have, and what kind of heating source do you have?

[stEveY13]

OMG guys!!! thanks so much for ALL of the help. You learn something new every day.Oh, and crabby jo, it is a glass tank. im trying to upload a picture of it, but my laptop wont let me... but once again THANKS TO ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[stEveY13]

Oh i forgot about the heating source! its a energy efficent bulb, 30 whatt but regular is about 75 whatt. Should i use something else, or is it to hot, or not good enough?

[emmac350]

If you're using a normal light bulb like you'd use in your lamps around the house, you need to look into getting a heat bulb made for animals. You can find a bunch of them in the reptile section of most pet stores. If your tank is 12 gallons, then you probably shouldn't go over 40 or 50 watts maximum - I'd recommend probably getting a 25 watt bulb. My moon glow bulb (I use it for a night cycle) is 25 watts and it keeps my 30 gallon tank at a level temperature - it doesn't mess with the overall temperature at all. If you get too high of a watt level in a bulb, you'll have to watch the temperature in the tank very closely as it will get much too hot for crabs if left on all the time.