New Rescues!
Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 6:16 pm
Generally when ever I go into a pet shop I of course always check out the hermit crabs. Most of the time I stop at Petco or PetSmart and both stores are extremely good with their hermit crabs. (In my experience, I know others wouldn't agree with their stores) The shops have the correct substrate, fresh water, perfect heat and humidity and for being in the store setting the hermit crabs all generally seem comfortable and well looked after. Other then when I am ready to bring in a new crab I never feel obligated to buy one every time I go in there.
I stopped into a different shop today and I asked the price of the hermit crabs. They mentioned that the painted shell crabs are 5.99 and the unpainted shelled crabs are 3.99. I am used to them being 7.99 so I was like ooo maybe I can be flexible today and get a little 3.99 crab to add to the crew. The gentlemen was very nice and very trust worthy with me as he opened the tank and let me go through the whole thing by myself while he helped other customers.
At first glance it looked like there were a lot of crabs all huddled in the corner. I turned all the shells over to find that just about every one was empty. I shrugged figured it was nice they weren't over crowded and had plenty of shells provided for them. Most of the shells however were painted and they had some types of shells that all us hermie owners would love to see our crabs go into but the crabs hate those types. For example the long spiral shells that are very pointy at the end. ( I believe they are called Auger or Ladder Horn shells) All the others were very small natural shells.
There were about 18 shells in the tank:
12/18 empty
7/18 had crabs in them.
I found about 7 crabs in the tank.
2 were certainly dead
2 were questionably dead
and 3 were alive.
I handed the worker the dead crabs. One was very large and he said was moving around very slowly in the morning and he could tell it was dying. He tried to help by putting it near the water dish but that's the only thing he really knew to do for it. I could tell he did try and I could sense he was saddened by losing him. The second dead crab had no limbs and was shriveled up and all dry sitting in the shell. I found his limbs and took them out of the tank as well. Another crab was submerged in the water, I took him out and I thought I saw him move but when I was really looking at him I could move his limbs with no reaction and he didn't retract into his shell or move at all when I put some water in his shell. He looked to be missing limbs as well. The second questionable hermit was the same, no reaction, no movement. The 5th hermit crab was large and was alive. He reacted to me touching him and tucked himself into the shell to get away from me. The 6th crab was small and as soon as I picked her up she came popping right out to say hello, was very active and walked around on my hand. I noticed she was not in the best shape and was missing all different parts of her legs. The 7th crab is about medium size. I noticed he had nice limbs and he too came right out of his shell and walked around. They both were so cute but you could tell they were not 100% healthy and their enclosure did not have what they needed. The habitat was more for a gecko, set up as a desert, then a tropical beach setting. I believe the lack of humidity, the desert type sand and the intense heat from the huge heat lamp they had on the small tank caused the other crabs to dry out and become to lethargic that it led to them dropping their limbs and dying.
I knew that was the fate of these two hermies and with them being 3.99 (and by the way in beautiful polished Jade Turbos) I brought them to the counter and bought them.
The medium sized crab is a boy and the little broken one is a girl. I have them in ISO right now to make sure that they aren't sick from all the dead crabs they were being kept with. I cannot wait to add them in with the others in my bigger tank and see them flourish and come back to life!
I stopped into a different shop today and I asked the price of the hermit crabs. They mentioned that the painted shell crabs are 5.99 and the unpainted shelled crabs are 3.99. I am used to them being 7.99 so I was like ooo maybe I can be flexible today and get a little 3.99 crab to add to the crew. The gentlemen was very nice and very trust worthy with me as he opened the tank and let me go through the whole thing by myself while he helped other customers.
At first glance it looked like there were a lot of crabs all huddled in the corner. I turned all the shells over to find that just about every one was empty. I shrugged figured it was nice they weren't over crowded and had plenty of shells provided for them. Most of the shells however were painted and they had some types of shells that all us hermie owners would love to see our crabs go into but the crabs hate those types. For example the long spiral shells that are very pointy at the end. ( I believe they are called Auger or Ladder Horn shells) All the others were very small natural shells.
There were about 18 shells in the tank:
12/18 empty
7/18 had crabs in them.
I found about 7 crabs in the tank.
2 were certainly dead
2 were questionably dead
and 3 were alive.
I handed the worker the dead crabs. One was very large and he said was moving around very slowly in the morning and he could tell it was dying. He tried to help by putting it near the water dish but that's the only thing he really knew to do for it. I could tell he did try and I could sense he was saddened by losing him. The second dead crab had no limbs and was shriveled up and all dry sitting in the shell. I found his limbs and took them out of the tank as well. Another crab was submerged in the water, I took him out and I thought I saw him move but when I was really looking at him I could move his limbs with no reaction and he didn't retract into his shell or move at all when I put some water in his shell. He looked to be missing limbs as well. The second questionable hermit was the same, no reaction, no movement. The 5th hermit crab was large and was alive. He reacted to me touching him and tucked himself into the shell to get away from me. The 6th crab was small and as soon as I picked her up she came popping right out to say hello, was very active and walked around on my hand. I noticed she was not in the best shape and was missing all different parts of her legs. The 7th crab is about medium size. I noticed he had nice limbs and he too came right out of his shell and walked around. They both were so cute but you could tell they were not 100% healthy and their enclosure did not have what they needed. The habitat was more for a gecko, set up as a desert, then a tropical beach setting. I believe the lack of humidity, the desert type sand and the intense heat from the huge heat lamp they had on the small tank caused the other crabs to dry out and become to lethargic that it led to them dropping their limbs and dying.
I knew that was the fate of these two hermies and with them being 3.99 (and by the way in beautiful polished Jade Turbos) I brought them to the counter and bought them.
The medium sized crab is a boy and the little broken one is a girl. I have them in ISO right now to make sure that they aren't sick from all the dead crabs they were being kept with. I cannot wait to add them in with the others in my bigger tank and see them flourish and come back to life!
