scales on eyes?

Can someone tell me if this is normal. I got these 2 crabs at petco at the same time along with one other who is buried right now. All 3 have it. Is this normal or is it a fungus or something.
Jenn

 

I haven't seen this personally, but I recall others posting about this sometime back. (But not with such clear pictures -- wow, that's great!)
I can't remember what people ended up doing exactly, but I think someone may have been able to clean them off with a Q-tip (!) and someone else was waiting to see what happened after a molt. But the upshot was that they appear to be harmless for the crab, I think. Maybe someone with some actual experience can fill in the details.

 

I had a crab with the scabby looking eyes-she was one of my cute little ruggies that had a gill mite stuck to her too. I never did get the crusty stuff off of her and she never made it past 10 days home with me. I don't think the eyes were the issue though. It was most likely the poor conditions and stress of being harvested prior to coming to a safe place.

From what I can tell, I have a Cavipes with a slight case of scabby eyes-but s/he didn't stay out long enough for me to see and is now buried. Perhaps they will be shed with a molt. Keep us updated as I would be very curious to see if a molt does indeed clear up the eyes.

 

Now that I think about it, Herbie had some of that stuff on one eye. It wasnt on the eye itself, but the eyestalk, and on the inside just as those photos show. I had never done anything with it because it was so close to her eye.

 

I have never seen it before, if one of them molt please let us know the outcome. Hopefully they will shed it with their EXO...

 

I have a ruggie with that gunk on her eyes molting right now.





I'm trying to figure out what it is with the help of some other folks, but so far we're stumped.

I'll be sure to post a report about what happened after her molt.

 

I double checked my journal notes and found that I do have a Cavipes with the same thing on her/his eyes. S/he has been down since arriving here, so hopefully a molt is upcoming. I was going to say that it seems to afflict the Rugosus mostly-at least from the posts that I have read on other forums.

 

Just an update here, Aura the crab in the original post, has recently come up from molting in the last few days, and those scaley things on her eyes are gone! Not only are her eyes better but her missing leg has grown back also. She is so beautiful. My other Ruggie pepper in the above pic is down molting now. I am hoping his eyes will be better when he surfaces also. Recent pics to come!
JEnn

 

Oh, I'm glad, Jennifer! My Ghidra passed away after shedding her exo so I couldn't tell if she'd shed the scales or not.

If they grow back, would you notify us here, please? I know someone very interested in crab biology who would like to know. She thinks it might be some kind of normal secretion that has gone haywire for some reason.

 

WOW, that's great Jennifer!

 

My cavipes came up without the scales too! So whatever in the world it is, molting seems to take care of it