Another loss....

[Chuck_Norris]

My micro passed today. I'm shocked, as this is two losses in a very short period of time after experiencing a long stretch with no losses. I'd never seen a crab as small as my little micro... the cutest little thing I'd ever seen. There's really nothing more to say I guess, I'm just very confused as to why I'm having deaths all of the sudden. Nothing has changed that I'm aware of, so is it coincidence, or have I done something to contribute to the sudden decline of my crabitat population? Any help, advice, opinions, or words in general would be much appreciated.

[alli'smommy]

I hate that you're going through this. I went through a rough patch a few months back. I was about to just throw in the towel. It seemed like I lost one right after another, then my luck changed. I have been doing well. Nothing has changed as far as the conditions or food, I don't understand why I had such a rough time.

HERMEZ: If you read this, I am just curious, with as many hermies as you have, how often do you lose a crab? I mean, I only have nine, but I seem to lose them kinda often. But I am still building my "colony" so to speak and most of the deaths are within two weeks of purchase. I do ISO them for a month at least, but alot don't reach the main tank. Your group is probably pretty well established, right? Just thought you could add some insight to our problem!

[Donna M]

So sorry about your micro. Surely it's just coincidence. I've read a lot of your posts and I know you take very good care of your crabby family.

Hang in there!

Donna M.

[LSHermies]

aww I am so sorry for your loss.

[Hildegarde]

Sorry for your loss, Chuck. I have an established colony that have been doing well. The oldest is over a year old, the youngest are 5 months old.

But I also have a tank of teeny and smalls Es since September, and they're not doing well at all, although I know all of them have molted at least once while in captivity. Maybe small ones have less of a success rate. I wonder if it's nature's way of weeding out the weaker ones?

[DaisyCrab]

Not to go off topic, but I would have to agree with Hildegarde. I had a streak of horrible luck with small & teeny crabs a while back, yet never my large crabs.

Sorry to hear about your crab. It's very sad when they pass.

[HERMEZ]

Originally Posted by alli'smommy

HERMEZ: If you read this, I am just curious, with as many hermies as you have, how often do you lose a crab? I mean, I only have nine, but I seem to lose them kinda often. But I am still building my "colony" so to speak and most of the deaths are within two weeks of purchase. I do ISO them for a month at least, but alot don't reach the main tank. Your group is probably pretty well established, right? Just thought you could add some insight to our problem!

its never a set pattern- I have about 54 losses and I have 54 crabs now- maybe about to lose 1.......I have been doing this nearly 3 years so that being said 20-22 were with me 6 mos or more............I cant take it all as on me as I adopt alot and I cant really be responsible for them unless they have been with me over a year (I think thats fair)

it does take time to weed out the crabs that wont last. I am still amazed I have my first 2. I actually have a chart I need to see what the breakdown is. I have to run

Chuck I am sorry for your losses. Winter IMHO is the roughest to go thru- just this week I lost my last Cav and I can never find them- he was with me 17mos.......I am sad too

[alli'smommy]

Thanks for your response, Hermez. So, the early losses are probably not so much what we are doing, but what the previous envirnment was. Even though we are doing the absolute best we can, we can't blame ourselves for what they went through getting to us.

Hildegarde and DaisyCrab: My smallest ones never seem to survive. But all of the smalls have been E's so I chalked the losses up to E's being harder to keep. But maybe size does have more to do with it. Good point. For some reason, I thought smaller ones would be younger=stronger.

[HERMEZ]

I dunno about the size theory- I have had some micro-teenie-smalls become mediums on me---

[Chuck_Norris]

I did a deep clean today, just to make sure that there wasn't anything that I didn't know about (i.e. any little bugs, mold, or anything else harmful). I found nothing... well, I found two molters, but I found nothing that could explain the deaths. To be honest, doing the deep clean has definitely cheered me up. Everybody's up moving around and exploring the new set up. I went back to sand like I said I wanted to... well, it's about 60% sand, with the other 30% being 15% EE and 15% river rock... EE is on the left and river rock is on the right, and the sand is in the middle. On top of the river rock is where I'm keeping the shells so that they don't get so dirty so quickly. I also have some moss on top of it and on top of that I have a coco hut. I also redid my hanging moss pit from a plastic shower caddy to a wire caddy. I'm pretty pleased with it. I was going to take pictures to post but my boyfriend put my camera up where the cats can't get it after they broke it recently, but he didn't tell me where he put it so I'll just have to wait 'til he gets home so he can find it for me. I'll post pictures as soon as I can. Keep an eye out in the photo section of the forum for a thread from me!