Did he end up dropping all of his legs? I really appreciate the time you took to photograph his body, but the photos look a bit 'gruesome' compared to the ones I took of Ceres. I'm just worried some people might be put off a bit by the close ups since abdomens aren't exactly the cutest body part of a hermit crab.
Due to the amount of hermies dead in the tank (there were at least 7) that had left their shells, I'm assuming they were out of water for days...poor things. And when I went back a few days ago, the last 2 that were alive still when I bought him were dead. Their tank was half aquarium gravel and half calci-sand I think..it was colored stuff. They had one waterbowl (quite tiny for the amount of crabs) and a feed dish. There was a plastic hamster hut for them to hide in, and a few shells (which were mostly from the dead crabs. I saw 3 that had holes in them, so were really unusable. There was also a piece of that climbing wall stuff. Poor things.ladybug15057 wrote:If you can't find the receipt, an address and their phone number too will work. (and should be included with the store ID #)
Usually when an abdomen is so shriveled as it was it is due to dehydration. This can be due to lack of water, or even using a substrate (like bark for example) that pulls moisture from the hermie if used dry.
Yea, I'm pretty sure that's what it was-bone dry. There were 2 dead on that, and the other 4 were dead on the aquarium gravel side. All out of their shells and shriveled up.ladybug15057 wrote:Calsi sand is drying too if used dry. It pulls moisture, says this on the bag too. But if it is used damp, when it begins to dry it hardens and can be almost impossible for a hermie to dig through. This can be lethal to the hermie who is trying to resurface after burrowing. Chances are it was some type of hermie sand they sell... which is a calsi sand.
The other two that were alive the day I brought the lil one home were curled up next to each other in the front corner of the tank next to the dry water dish. (Which I got them to fill...though it was water straight from sink they get water for their fish tanks from-unknown whether it was dechlorinated or not)
