Crab-cicles

tomtru · Post by **tomtru** » 14 Nov 2004, 20:06

My crabbies are cold! I lack a UTH. I'm reluctant to buy one for fear of encountering baked crabs. But the two blankets I have over the tank aren't cutting it, either. Help!

Post by **Wai** » 14 Nov 2004, 22:54

I'm pretty sure UTHs are safe for hermies. I haven't heard from someone that the UTH baked their crabs alive. Just give it a try, and if it does overheat, just return it back to the store.

Hannah · Post by **Hannah** » 15 Nov 2004, 15:46

I sort of use a UTH. I actually use an electric heating pad used for humans that is turned on low. Works like a charm for me. Be creative and post results!! If you are afraid of baked crabs, try putting a blanket or towel between the UTH and the tank.

tomtru · Post by **tomtru** » 15 Nov 2004, 18:57

I've got a heating pad set on low. It's doing the job great! I STILL say keep an eye on that kind of thing (especially a heating pad). Don't want any fires.

Hannah · Post by **Hannah** » 18 Nov 2004, 11:43

Is it a heating pad from a petstore, or a heating pad for people? (no worries, just curious)

tomtru · Post by **tomtru** » 18 Nov 2004, 12:22

It's a people one. It's all I have. I'm keeping a VERY close eye one it as well as keeping it as low as it will go. So far, it's kept the tank at exactly the right temperature. I'm very serious about preventing fires.

Hannah · Post by **Hannah** » 19 Nov 2004, 12:44

Yeah, I have a people heating pad and keep it on low. It works just fine for me. I havent had any fires yet, either.

Post by **Carrie** » 23 Nov 2004, 18:01

I had a little E crab named Mercury who was digging in and out of the sand under the water dish. At the time I had a UTH under the dish, thinking that would help them molt and maybe increase the humidity. I had learned enough by then to want to increase the heat but not enough to be really smart about it.

I went out of town for 3 days, leaving Mom to watch them. Up until I was gone, Mercury had been coming up from under every day... but while I was gone, I think she might have gotten overheated under there, b/c she died. I still feel terrible over that, and I've never used an UTH since. I don't KNOW that the UTH actually caused her death--might have also been molting complications (I didn't know Es needed a constant supply of salt water until about a year later, for one thing.) Just in case, I took it out. If there's one out there where you can control the temp, that would be a great thing to have... b/c the one I used to have was pretty hot and all you could do was unplug it. (There are Christmas light timers that might work for this; run it half an hour, off for half an hour, or something like that, using the timer to turn it on and off, so it never gets totally hot or totally cool.)

I've wondered about heating pads--the human ones. When the heat was out in an apartment I had, I kept the crabs in a carrier, wrapped in the bottom of the electric blanket, by my feet.

Right now, both tanks have heat-lamps (moonglow 60-watt bulbs) and heater-rocks. The tank w/ the small crabs in it has a rock w/ the heat-rock on top of it, so that no one can get stuck underneath it or beside it and get burned or overheat. The crabs are hiding "under the rock under the rock" now, and some reast on top of the bigger regular rock, warming their shells against the heat-rock. Like a typical worried mother, I check the temperature of the heat-rocks every so often. I have read on some sites that heat-rocks are bad b/c crabs can be burned by them, but I was desperate for an extra heat source w/ winter coming on. They seem OK so far...

Last winter I tried to "seal" the heat inside by putting cellophane on top of the tank (w/ air-spaces) as I had no lid. This fall I wrapped the tanks (except for the fronts) in aluminum foil w/ the theory that the foil would reflect the heat and light back into the tanks; this actually seems to work. Adding a secondary heat source besides the lamps--the rocks--seems to help. A UTH or heating pad would also work... I made tank lids out of poster frame plastic, and if too much heat is leaving, I might wrap the lids in foil. That might be why more crabs are hiding under the rock that supports the heat-rock. And I think they might be less active, too. But the weather only turned cold recently for a few days.

Moral of the story: don't put the UTH under the water dish in case a pre-molt crab gets stuck under there. And don't go to Cleveland for 3 days anytime soon.

Kali Sharai

Hannah · Post by **Hannah** » 24 Nov 2004, 18:15

When hermies overheat, they have a discharge of a gross brown liquid. Were there any type of substances on her or in the sand she was in like that?

Post by **Carrie** » 27 Nov 2004, 18:42

There wasn't any liquid that I could find.. but maybe it'd soaked into the sand? I'm not sure when the crab died as I was out of town, but probably within 24 hours of when I got home. Probably more than about 6 hours, but not more than the 24. Estimated time of death... She was a few inches away from her shell. I always figured it was excess heat b/c I'd read that that's one of the reasons they'd leave their shells.

A crab named Lil' Bit (lost a leg and big claw in an overnight molt--one of the small ones you can't tell is molting) left her shell and died, too, and I have no idea why. I had to keep her isolated and she had a hard time walking--crooked back leg, and I had to put her by half a white grape, the food she liked, so she could eat (a step above hand-feeding, but close). I think she just... died. Not suicide, but possibly stress? I left her alone for about an hour when she did this--she was fine when I left, and had been doing OK for about a week. When I came home her abdomen was still mostly soft and I got her back in her shell and kept her moist but she'd already passed on. She's the only little crab who's not survived her molt (this being what got her in the end, really, tho she did survive initially) out of about 15 little ones.

I got a little E crab (and a bigger one) on Nov. 24th. Very tiny crab, but most of my little PPs are very tiny too. This little one lived for only a day. She got to eat (she was nibbling at my hand w/ her little claw) and fresh water, and she seemed to be fine. And at least her last day was a good one (I hope), out of the pet shop, good food, etc. I was hoping she was only molting, b/c they let go of their shells, or nearly so, but she's really gone. I took her picture (post mortem, but I didn't think I had to act so fast) and named her Happy, so she's entered into my 'crab geneology.' I want her to have a name and a memorial b/c besides maybe a petshop inventory number (part of a list) otherwise it'd be like she never lived at all. I'm going to 'trade her in' for another baby crab. And hopefully keep her body so I can bury her properly, too.

The bigger crab is named Lucky and seems to be doing just fine. I was so excited to have E's again b/c I haven't had them in years... that crab who died when I was out of town was an E, before I knew they needed salt water all the time, named Mercury. The other little E I had at the same time molted and left her shell about a day later--not related to the UTH in any way that I can suspect. Looking back I had too much heat and no humidity b/c I didn't know much yet. I'd just started my online research that month. And before then I tried but there was so much I just didn't know. Kali IV almost died in a molt that month, but she lived until May 2, 2003. Little Guy II, a PP, was bought w/ Penny and Mercury, the Es who died a month and two months later. LGII is still with me. A little bigger and in a different shell, but still here.

All this happened in the dark days of early winter, 2000. I've read that Es are harder to see thru a molt anyway, even if you know about them needing salt water all the time (which I know now, of course). Happy I will be replaced by Happy II (so the memory of my little one who I had for only a day lives on). A little baby E who will hopefully live for a long time. With heat and humidity and salt water and baby shrimp and all the things that have helped my others live as long as they have. Plus a new furnace after it went out on and off for most of last December. Huge III probably died b/c her molting cycle got fried--and AuraCrab, Arwen, and West Nile, jumbos I'd had less than a year. Jumbos also have a harder time molting b/c their skins are thicker... but Huge III would've been "4" that June. They all tried to molt in January and February.

Maybe Mercury didn't overheat from the UTH. I hope not. Maybe it was one of those weird pre-molt things. Pre molt stress?? Is there such a thing? I just wanted to put in a word of caution about the UTH just in case... and if I ever get one again it's not going under the water dish...

Crab-cicles

Crab-cicles

Heating experiments...