Hermit Crabs ~R~ us - View Single Post

Kaelink · 03-05-2008, 06:47 PM

I've been looking for a solution to this problem for the past couple of weeks to no avail.
Finally, I stumbled on this website and noticed that the forum happened to be very active and seemed to have a good deal of friendly people on it, so I wanted to pose my situation. ^_^

I own 3 PPs, all purchased from PetSmart.
I had two housed in an average 10-gallon tank (from Wal-Mart) for almost a year. They're fine. They haven't molted once, and the largest (Comrade) has only changed shells once since I got him. I, at first, thought that I was not taking care of them well enough because they didn't molt/didn't change shells very often, though I took every necessary precaution and fed them very well (They're fond of whole wheat toast). My other PP, bought about the same time as Comrade is Rex (His shell looks a lot like a T-Rex skull).

About 2 months ago, I bought another PP, the third, Crablagh (Taken from a Futurama episode). Two days after arriving here, Crablagh decided to bury himself. I watched very closely, as I could see him from under the bottom of the tank. He was molting.
It seemed that everything I read suggested isolating crabs if you suspect that they are about to molt. Crablagh didn't give me any signs. He just kind of molted, I'm assuming from stress as, at the time, PetSmart wasn't taking very good care of their crabs (A letter to corporate seems to have fixed that). So, instead of digging him up, I put Comrade and Rex in the isolation tank. It's small, but large enough for slight walking room/food/two water dishes.
Crablagh successfully molted and I left him isolated for a couple of weeks as he built up strength and became very active.
I cleaned the tank exceptionally well, redesigned it, and just overall improved its appearance. The three hermies went into the main tank.

Here's where my issue comes in.
Comrade and Crablagh had some issues getting along at first, since Comrade is obviously dominant, I guess... if that makes sense. However, their issues were soon resolved.
However, two days into the transfer I noticed that Rex was burrowing. I watched him and he eventually went into the hut (much larger than the coconut). This was at about 3AM. At 6AM, I woke up and looked to make sure that everyone was doing fine.
There was an unusual mound of sand next to the water dish, though it had plenty of water. I had seen this same type of mound with Crablagh and immediately knew to look through the bottom of the tank.
Rex had buried himself. I immediately removed him (probably a mistake, but I figured that in the 3 hours I was asleep, there was little chance he had actually begun molting) and placed him back in the Isolation tank, which had been cleaned as well. It had food/water/salt water/a hut. There were, of course, shells as well.
It has been a couple of weeks now and Rex has not even attempted to bury himself in the isolation tank. However, when I put him in the main tank, he immediately finds a corner and begins digging.

Can someone please shed some light on this and maybe help me out? :x
I don't think that it is anything serious, but I would definitely like to make sure.

Sorry for my wordiness, as well.

03-05-2008, 06:47 PM	#1 (permalink)
Kaelink "Never Molted" Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Murray, KY Posts: 30	Isolation/Molting conundrum. I've been looking for a solution to this problem for the past couple of weeks to no avail. Finally, I stumbled on this website and noticed that the forum happened to be very active and seemed to have a good deal of friendly people on it, so I wanted to pose my situation. ^_^ I own 3 PPs, all purchased from PetSmart. I had two housed in an average 10-gallon tank (from Wal-Mart) for almost a year. They're fine. They haven't molted once, and the largest (Comrade) has only changed shells once since I got him. I, at first, thought that I was not taking care of them well enough because they didn't molt/didn't change shells very often, though I took every necessary precaution and fed them very well (They're fond of whole wheat toast). My other PP, bought about the same time as Comrade is Rex (His shell looks a lot like a T-Rex skull). About 2 months ago, I bought another PP, the third, Crablagh (Taken from a Futurama episode). Two days after arriving here, Crablagh decided to bury himself. I watched very closely, as I could see him from under the bottom of the tank. He was molting. It seemed that everything I read suggested isolating crabs if you suspect that they are about to molt. Crablagh didn't give me any signs. He just kind of molted, I'm assuming from stress as, at the time, PetSmart wasn't taking very good care of their crabs (A letter to corporate seems to have fixed that). So, instead of digging him up, I put Comrade and Rex in the isolation tank. It's small, but large enough for slight walking room/food/two water dishes. Crablagh successfully molted and I left him isolated for a couple of weeks as he built up strength and became very active. I cleaned the tank exceptionally well, redesigned it, and just overall improved its appearance. The three hermies went into the main tank. Here's where my issue comes in. Comrade and Crablagh had some issues getting along at first, since Comrade is obviously dominant, I guess... if that makes sense. However, their issues were soon resolved. However, two days into the transfer I noticed that Rex was burrowing. I watched him and he eventually went into the hut (much larger than the coconut). This was at about 3AM. At 6AM, I woke up and looked to make sure that everyone was doing fine. There was an unusual mound of sand next to the water dish, though it had plenty of water. I had seen this same type of mound with Crablagh and immediately knew to look through the bottom of the tank. Rex had buried himself. I immediately removed him (probably a mistake, but I figured that in the 3 hours I was asleep, there was little chance he had actually begun molting) and placed him back in the Isolation tank, which had been cleaned as well. It had food/water/salt water/a hut. There were, of course, shells as well. It has been a couple of weeks now and Rex has not even attempted to bury himself in the isolation tank. However, when I put him in the main tank, he immediately finds a corner and begins digging. Can someone please shed some light on this and maybe help me out? :x I don't think that it is anything serious, but I would definitely like to make sure. Sorry for my wordiness, as well.