Why are my ascetic crabs dying?
I have had five hermit crabs contained by my life. I first got three and one died so we went and get two new ones. Well, the one that died, his body that was out of the shell like split from the part of the pack in the shell. He was lazy from the time we got him, but in his life he fell stale at least two tables. He died this september and we got him and the first three surrounded by april.
Yesterday, one of the original two we had left be found dead. His body has not completely split, but he had a gap in his abdomen. His body was stretched out far ample were I could see the part I never see. His skin was exceedingly very light colored after his death. I could not see any purple on his pincher. He be the always the smallest of the group. I noticed he was adjectives up in his sponge the day before. We bought the first three at a place next to dead hermit crabs in the pool. Could he own goten a disease from their? Or could the other ones of beated him up?
One more thing the first one that died, his body split part was smooth, this one`s body looked similar to it was eaten by another one.
Answers: Are you sure that what you found be the dead crab and not just the exoskeleton of the crab? Instead of having a skeleton on the inside, they own the hard outer exoskeleton. When they grow, they must shed the exoskeleton (similar to snakes shedding their skin), and grow a new one. This process is called molting. Before they molt, they become markedly inactive and spend a lot of time around the water bowl. After the skin is shed, they are extremely adjectives. Their skin is light pink and soft, so they spend most of their time tucked way, way inside their shell. So, it is moderately possible that your "dead crab" was just the skin and the crab be hidden inside the shell. Also, many crabs will die during or shortly after molting, so more than likely, this is what have happened. They will eat the shedded skin, and also other crabs will eat limp crabs.
You always want to keep crabs together in groups of like size, because the older and bigger ones will pick on the smaller ones. It's possible the crabs could be diseased, so always buy crabs that are very live (with no dead ones around).
Crabs die easily and while they can live many, copious years in the wild, getting 5 years out of them in captivity is knotty. What I've learned over the years:
Spray crabs with cold water each day, getting inside the shell.
"Bath" crabs twice a week by dunking them three times in lukewarm water.
Keep crabs in sheltered fish tank with a lid. They need hot, humid environment to outlive. A heated rock (for lizards) works great to keep the temperature up.
Every time you clean the reservoir (or more often) rearrange and change out the climbing equipment...they seem to bring back bored easily.
Make sure each crab have AT LEAST two shells to change into, one slightly larger than the one it's in, and one slightly larger than that one. The more they have, the better "fit" they can seize. I once had a crab change shells 5 times in one week until he found one he like.
Good luck!
hermit crabs live in borrowed shells. once they outgrow their shell they need to find another one rather bigger. a crab that grows will shed its skin and develop one that fits the bigger body. it is very possible that they came with a disease from the inventive place. find another store and check out the ponds carefully to avoid problems. do you feed them the right food? good luck.
