not sure if crabs are dead

[bowtiebomber2]

thanks for allthe help, althoguh .... patrick the big jumbo from the same tank as all of the other crabs has died, no it was not a surface molt. he fell out of his shell when picked up.. we think it could be something in the tank killing them so we removed all of the living crabs into my tank which have been doing quite well. we will stiop wit hthe cheesits the crabs never liked it really anywyas, what about peanut butter? larger tanks is not really a plausable option and i will hopefully post pictures soon on the tanks and crabbs. temps vary between 75-85 all day and night and humidity between 75- 99 % all day and night. i want the poor crabs to live and now am goign to thouroughly clean the tank of the dead crabs, but in that tank there ar 2 molters one about 7 week and one only a few days, is there a way to carfully transport them and their exo to a ''molting tank''?

[WizKidsMom]

Natural organic peanut butter is good. So is unsalted - no butter popcorn.

It sounds like your crabs suffered from PPS (Post purchase syndrome). You want your temperature and humidity to stay constant. Humidity that jumps from 75 - 99 is not good.

The rule of crabs - never move a molter if you can help it. Wait until they are up before you do a deep clean. If you must move them - use a spoon to pick them up and place them on top of the substrate of the other tank. You can make an indent in the substrate before the move. Then place a hut over it. They like it dark when they molt.
Make sure you have salt water, plain water and food for them.

Did you at least turn off the under sand heater?

[bowtiebomber2]

no we havent turned off the heater, it only heats a small portion of the tank s owe didnt think it was nesecary, the only reason the humidity would jump is right after we would mist the tank so it would be like a rain humidityt kind of thing, im going to wrok on taking and posting pictures of the tanks and crabs today, we were actualy giving them jiff smooth peanutbutter but im now guessing that is bad aswell because it is people food.

[bowtiebomber2]

here are a few pictures of the tank setup. it is prett ycrowded right now due t oextra crabs temporarily moved in . buuba is pictured. he is my jesus sized crab. the tank i nwhich the crabs died is verry su=immilar if not exactly the same except it is right next to a bull frog tank. could this be a problem?

[bowtiebomber2]

[WizKidsMom]

Turn off that heater. While it may be in one section, it is not for hermies. When they dig, they will get overheated near it - or burned.

Is that hygrometer inside the tank? It is hard to tell in your picture.

Hermies like to climb - how about use suction cups to string netting or vines from one end to the other to give them more climbing area.

[bowtiebomber2]

ok will turn off the heater. the meter is inside the tank. all crabs seem to be doing fine for now and another one of the ''tic-tacs'' ( nickle sized crabs) went into molting i beleive, or hiding somewere. i like the neting idea althoguht the crabs climb around on the celing. as far as tha tfrog cage goes, when it is cleaned sometimes water gets ''splashed'' everywere, d oyou think anything from that water could hurt the crabs? we were possibly going to move the frog all together.

[WizKidsMom]

What kind of water do you use for the frog? Yeah - thinking about it, the dirty water from the frog tank may have bacteria that is not good for the crabs. Moving the tank would be in the best interest to the crabs.

As long as you are keeping the tank at a constant temp & humidity and feeding them non commercial foods the hermies should be fine.

[bowtiebomber2]

the frog has been moved and temp normaly stays the same but to maintain the humidity we have to mist about twice a day . we deep cleaned the other tank and the crabs seem to be doing fine. as far as the molter goes she seems to be doing fine and was placed back at the bottom wit hall of her remaining shell. so far a sucess =]

[WizKidsMom]

So far so good.
I use a bubbler in my tank to keep the humidity up. It is just an air stone connected to an air pump with small tubing. I cover the air stone with small stones so the hermies don't trash it. The bubbles can be adjusted using one of those air adjusters in the tubing line.