My hermit crabs are slowly dieing, what can I do to stop them?

Question

I have tried to keep them as healthy as I can. I make sure that there heat is between 72 & 75, there humidity is above 80. I keep there crabitat clean from poopies and make sure they get fresh food (veggies, fruit,fish, chicken, beef, melons, berrys,ect). I serve it to then on a shell so they get there calcuim. I am just so upset that they are slowly dieing. I have lost two know and I believe that I will be loosing another really soon. The first one started shedding its leggs ( until they where all off) so I changes the sub to eco earth instead of then sand. Then the next one stared to hide alot and I thought that it was weird so I kept my eye on it and it stayed in the same postion for about 8hrs( just sitting out of its shell like it was going to go some where) when I touched it it didnt go back in its shell do I looked at it and went into it shell. Then I found it getting water, 3hrs later thats there he died. Now one is doing same, Help please its breaking my heart!

Answer 1

I have some questions for you.

1, are you using de-chlorinated water? (Personally I use distilled water) This includes the water in any humidification device.

2. How long have you had these crabs? The crabs you buy from the pet store a usually very stressed and for that reason many of them die soon after you bring them home. Leg loss is a sure sign of stress.

3. Did the dead crabs smell fishy? it is possible that they are molting. A crab's exoskeleton looks just like the crab that you see with it's shell on. One way to tell that it is an exoskeleton is that there will be no abdomen. The molted crab has a new soft exoskeleton and is much smaller until it hardens. Molted crabs can often fit all the way into their shells, making it's presence hard to detect. This is the reason I asked about a fishy smell. Never assume a hermit crab is dead without one. Also be sure to leave the exoskeleton as the crab needs to eat it to regain minerals needed for hardening it's new exoskeleton.

4, I feed hermit crab food and fish food so I have little experience with fresh foods (except fruit as treats). I suggest that you check hermit-crabs.com to be sure the foods are acceptable. Is the meat cooked or uncooked? Raw meat can carry many parasites as well as bacteria.


To be honest I think the molting or stress are the most likely answers. You can visit my hermies in the 3rd link below.

Answer 2

I'm not sure how wet your sand or eco earth is, but it needs to be really damp, damp enough to make a sand castle out of. If the sand stays wet they will bury down and molt. Hermies breathe through gills and their little bodies need lots of humidity. Molting can kill a hermie, it is very stressful for them and it sounds like yours might be trying to do so on top of the soil.

If their cage lid is screened or has "open slots", cover a bunch of them up so the humidity stays consistent. You can use a towel or some of that Glad "Press-n-Seal". Give them a spritz of warm water every other day or so, a drop of "stress coat" to your spray bottle, you can buy that in the fish department at the Pet Store. Stress coat helps their exoskeleton, it also has a declorinator in it. Make sure all water that is provided to them is declorinated. You will find they like the spritzing and look forward to it! When you spritz them, spray the tank walls and all too.

Once a week give them a warm bath in a bowl of water and stress coat. Lay a towel in the bottom of the tub and let them crawl around to dry off. They enjoy the extra exercise and being out of their homes for awhile too.

Also, you didn't say if you were providing salt water for them or not, but many crabs need salt as well as fresh water. If your Hermie has a purple claw, he needs salt water. Also, make sure you have lots of spare shells of all sizes around for them to move into. They like to change shells a lot.

Good luck, I know its sad losing your babies, but I have never had a problem using the above guidelines.

Check out this site too, a wealth of knowledge.
http://www.hermit-crabs.com/index.html

Answer 3

for someone new to holding hermit crabs this can properly be a tricky time. lots of the indications of molting is often indicators of drawing close demise. it should be tricky to inform the adaptation fantastically once you've basically bought your crab. initially there are indicators of molting. We affectionately call them PMS, pre molt indicators. * Digging * ingesting fairly a lot of water or soaking interior the dish * Cloudy Eyes * Ashy searching exo * Lethargy (very in energetic) * Spilling water to hose down the substrate the following’s the first position this receives complicated. once you carry abode a crab from the keep it ought to were saved in negative circumstances. it should be dehydrated, less than pressure out and hungry. in which case it may do properly the following: * Dig down interior the substrate to ‘destress’ * eat fairly a lot of water (or nutrition) or soak interior the dish * Be very torpid the following is the 2d position this receives complicated. at the same time as a crab dies, fairly commonly its limp body will hunch out of the shell. After an afternoon or 2 the crab will smell extraordinarily like a rotting fish. from time to time there is not any smell, yet an excellent type of the time its unmistakable. at the same time as a crab molts, it pushes off its exoskeleton which comes out of the shell and looks precisely like a limp, lifeless crab. in the adventure that your crab is in this position, putting out of its shell and limp, do properly the following: * set up a Isolation tank and gently flow the crab into it * leave the crab thoroughly in peace except to regulate the water and nutrition If the crab starts to smell you'll comprehend its surpassed on. If no longer, then there is an outstanding threat it really is molting and the exoskeleton will be eaten over the subsequent numerous days. There really isn't something you are able to do to resign your hermit crab from demise. the biggest element to undergo in concepts at this element is: do no longer manage YOUR CRAB! Don’t poke it, p.c.. it up, blow on it or in the different case disturb it. If its demise, you're basically causing it unnecessary rigidity. If its molting, you're causing it extra rigidity, that could in turn kill it. So, in end, if you're asking of your self: Is my crab demise or molting? you should positioned the crab into isolation and wait and be conscious. That’s it.

Answer 4

Sounds to me like your hermies were molting. The best thing you can do for them if they have not dug under is to move them to a tank by themselves and don't bother them. If they have dug down leave them alone and see if there is a way you can block them off from another other crabs.

When yours "died", did it smell fishy? It might have been that they weren't really dead. I had a co-worker that thought hers was dead because she saw all these body parts and nothing in the shell. Well she brought me the "empty shell" on day and guess what I found inside. A hermie. And to think it lived after being in her purse for 11 days. He is still around to this day.

Check out the best yahoo group on the web about hermies below and the other one is great for your supplies.

Answer 5

We make certain ours get moisture by placing them in a pietin full of water for 2-3 minutes a day. We use as a guide "The land Hermit Crab handbook" by M. & W. Huelsenbeck. Got it at The Shell Shanty, 342 13th St., Ship Bottom NJ . If they are land crabs, they not only need access to H2O, they need to be dipped to moisten their breathing apparatus. Good luck...

Answer 6

Do you provide salt water for your little guys? it helps with molting and overall health. They need regular water and salt. I'ver personally never heard of feeding a hermit crab beef and chicken before, maybe try some commercial food found at a pet store along with just veggies. i dunno what else, do you give them something to climb on? like a branch. how big is the habitat?

Answer 7

Do they have water?
Hermit crabs need two bowls of water to swim in - one of fresh water, and the other needs to be salty water. You didn't say you had those so I'm wondering if that's what the problem is. Do some reading online.

Answer 8

Here is a great resource for helping you with your hermit crabs, awesome people there who are very knowledgable and caring-good luck to you: http://www.crabstreetjournal.com/

Answer 9

Maybe they need more moisture on their bodies - try using a clean(new) spray-bottle and fresh, clean bottled (filtered) water and give them a light misting twice a day....

Answer 10

i think you should go to a pet store and ask them, they are supposeto know answers to questions such as this.