legs have died and fallen off

[daine042]

hey everyone just wondering what the hell is goin on with one of my crabs it has moulted about a week ago the exo skeleton is hard again but 1 leg the small claw and a portion of the moving part of the pincer on the large claw have turned black and fallen off is this some disease i should be worried about because i have 15 other crabs in the same tank and im pretty damn sure the queensland humidity is great for the crabs i have gravel in the bottom feed them every 3 or 4 days change water daily and the heat is always around 28 degrees c none of them have painted shells ive followed all instructions on the net with the set up of the terrarium (pet shops are useless) can anyone help?

[Wai]

Replace the gravel with sand.

What do you feed your hermit crabs? Most commercial hermit crab food products contain ingredients which are toxic to hermit crabs themselves, so if you have been feeding them commercial food (such as that Hermit Helpings gunk by Pets Paradise), then throw it and start feeding them fresh fruit, vegetables and meat.

[emmac350]

If the exo is turning black, it could be shell rot. In that case, you'll need to isolate that crab from all of the rest, as it's a contagious fungal infection. Give it stronger salt water so that the salt can hopefully prevent any infections from growing in the exposed parts of the limbs, and feed it a diet very high in protein and calcium to hopefully get it ready to molt again as quickly as possible to keep the infection from spreading any further over its body.