oops...did i do something bad?

Jaci · Post by **Jaci** » 03 Apr 2006, 12:11

my boyfriend and i both thought we smelled something odd in the tank, and we have 3 hermies under right now. i found bebe and ike, both are alive. then i had to find shelley. i found her along with a hollow leg. she has black tips on her feet, like my most recent molter Lemi. she didn't come out of her shell, she's pretty shy. i couldn't tell if her molt was unsuccessful or not. her and lemi went under at the same time, they've been under for about 3 weeks. lemi came up this morning, healthy as ever and so active, he likes his sleep though.

molting is tiring stuff.

was it bad to dig shelley up? i put her back in her hole and covered her after i looked at her. how long should i wait for her to resurface? did i screw everything up by doing what i did?

iluvhermies · Post by **iluvhermies** » 04 Apr 2006, 01:22

I have read they can stay down as long as 3 months at a time. I had my first molt come up last night and it had been down for l about a month. I looked at mine a few times and recovered it back up and it did fine. You are suppose to leave them down and alone. Only check if you smell something fishy. I have smelled things in the past but I checked my fods and water first for a smell. It turned out to be my salt water.

Jaci · Post by **Jaci** » 04 Apr 2006, 04:00

thank you for the advice. unfortunately the smell become more noticable and i dug shelley up again. she had passed away, mid-molt. it's kind of interesting because she and lemi went under at the same time, but lemi's went fine. i didn't do anything different with him compared to shelley, mostly because i didnt' know where either of them were. it wasn't something i did, right?

iluvhermies · Post by **iluvhermies** » 04 Apr 2006, 10:17

From what I understand some just do not make it when moulting. Since 1 made it and 1 did not I would say no it was nothing you did.

Jaci · Post by **Jaci** » 04 Apr 2006, 23:08

whew that's a relief. i have another that went under the day before lemi came up, so now i'm playing the waiting game with her and praying that i won't lose another one. thank you.

krazykrablady · Post by **krazykrablady** » 04 Apr 2006, 23:27

when you suspect one of moulting, aren't you SUPPOSED to move it to another cage?

everything I've read says to isolate, so to do that, you'd purdy much HAVE to do what ya did...

iluvhermies · Post by **iluvhermies** » 04 Apr 2006, 23:31

If you suspect they are getting ready to moult you can take them to iso. If they have already buried you should not dig them up to move them.

krazykrablady · Post by **krazykrablady** » 05 Apr 2006, 04:33

ah.. that makes sense...

Jaci · Post by **Jaci** » 05 Apr 2006, 12:36

crabs are supposed to show a few signs before molting. i had one that showed signs (grey eyes, lethargic, excessive drinking), he went into iso. unforunately he climbed out of his shell and passed away. my 3 that dug didn't show any signs of molting. lemi was successful, shelley was not, and now bebe has been under since saturday night. i just woke up one morning and i found a big pile of disturbed sand. i think that they may not show signs, but they do know what they're doing. i try to be sure that their sand is moist around that area and leave them to their molting.