What is Crusty doing?

Dad-One · Post by **Dad-One** » Fri Oct 30, 2020 11:26 pm

curlysister wrote:How deep is your substrate?
What are you feeding her?

If you had more than one crab, and one of them molts on the surface, you need to ensure that the molter is isolated from the other crab(s), because they are vulnerable when they have shed their exo and before they have hardened. So it's good that you only have the one crab!

Yeah, not all UTH's are created equal, and many of us learned that by trial and error. My tank is in a room where the temp varies greatly depending on the seasons. I actually have four UTH's - one on each side and two on the back. I can plug or unplug as needed to keep the temp in a good range. It's not an ideal situation, but it works for me LOL.

Sub is not deep enough, which I just discovered through the this forum. I’ll be remedying that here soon.

She’s also the only crab, so she was fairly safe in doing a surface molt.

I’ll be buying a couple good UTH’s that are recommended in the forums. One on the side, one on the back. I may leave the underside one for keeping the sub warmer off I decide to keep it all.

The tank is sitting on top of our birds metal cage. And by metal, I mean.... METAL. It’s welded steel with steel pans above and below. It’s meant for an African great sized parrot, but we have my husbands Quaker parrot in there.

Little bird loves to sit under the area where the tank is because it’s made of warm.

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Dad-One · Post by **Dad-One** » Fri Oct 30, 2020 11:27 pm

Pumpkincrab wrote:It appears your substrate is a thin layer of calcium sand. Crabs need 6 or more inches of coconut fiber, play sand or a mix of both. This is so important to a crabs health. I would recommend getting substrate as soon as possible.

That’s in the works. I’ll be revamping her entire crabitat.

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Pumpkincrab · Post by **Pumpkincrab** » Fri Oct 30, 2020 11:52 pm

Okay, great! I bet she will appreciate it!

Dad-One · Post by **Dad-One** » Sat Oct 31, 2020 12:06 am

Here’s where her home is located. In the top pan of a very large, heavy duty bird cage, that’s holding a very little bird.

.

Our house is 90 years old, so our room temp fluctuates a bit. Causing some condensation at times.

She’s been milling about the last couple hours, in and out of the water dishes over due have salt water now. I found a sample of instant ocean mix that was in storage from my old salt water tank years ago (likely not the greatest, but it was still sealed), on the log bridge, on the cactus log and even climbed her hide.

I swear when I talk to her, she lifts her shell to twerk. I mean, it’s literally shell up, shell down, shell up, shell down, slight wiggle side to side....

I’ll be completely revamping her tank this coming week. Bigger water pools, more things to climb. More things to hide under. Deeper substrate.

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crabbycasey · Post by **crabbycasey** » Sat Oct 31, 2020 7:56 am

When you mix her new substrate, add a little dechlorinated water to it as you add it in so that it is like sandcastle consistency, for when they dig to molt (for her next molt). I personally added 5 cups play sand, then 1 cup coconut fiber, then sprayed with dechlorinated and mixed up until consistency was right and then did the same thing over and over until it was 6”. Sorry if this is redundant and someone has already told you. Hope you have fun revamping her tank! Happy to hear she molted successfully. She must be happy too if she’s dancing for you...would love to see her little Crusty dance!

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Post by **curlysister** » Sat Oct 31, 2020 10:32 am

Dad-One wrote: ↑
Fri Oct 30, 2020 11:26 pm
Sub is not deep enough, which I just discovered through the this forum. I’ll be remedying that here soon.

She’s also the only crab, so she was fairly safe in doing a surface molt.

I’ll be buying a couple good UTH’s that are recommended in the forums. One on the side, one on the back. I may leave the underside one for keeping the sub warmer off I decide to keep it all.

The tank is sitting on top of our birds metal cage. And by metal, I mean.... METAL. It’s welded steel with steel pans above and below. It’s meant for an African great sized parrot, but we have my husbands Quaker parrot in there.

Little bird loves to sit under the area where the tank is because it’s made of warm.

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The lack of sub to dig into is why she surface molted - they put it off as long as they can, hoping for ideal conditions. I am glad you will be making your sub deeper so she can dig down for her next molt. Don't be surprised if she buries herself right away when you put the deeper substrate in, not necessarily for another molt right away but to de-stress or just for the fun of digging.

That is quite the bird cage under the crab tank!

Dad-One · Post by **Dad-One** » Sat Oct 31, 2020 9:12 pm

crabbycasey wrote:When you mix her new substrate, add a little dechlorinated water to it as you add it in so that it is like sandcastle consistency, for when they dig to molt (for her next molt). I personally added 5 cups play sand, then 1 cup coconut fiber, then sprayed with dechlorinated and mixed up until consistency was right and then did the same thing over and over until it was 6”. Sorry if this is redundant and someone has already told you. Hope you have fun revamping her tank! Happy to hear she molted successfully. She must be happy too if she’s dancing for you...would love to see her little Crusty dance!

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You’re not being repetitive, there are things that we needed to know and we were misguided.

We thank you for this information. We want the best life possible for all of our pets. Crabs, dog, cats and the bird.

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crabbycasey · Post by **crabbycasey** » Sat Oct 31, 2020 9:33 pm

I was in the same boat...until I joined here! Wanted all the info I could get. Sounds like you’re on the right track with everything! Hope Crusty is doing well

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Dad-One · Post by **Dad-One** » Sat Oct 31, 2020 11:04 pm

curlysister wrote: The lack of sub to dig into is why she surface molted - they put it off as long as they can, hoping for ideal conditions. I am glad you will be making your sub deeper so she can dig down for her next molt. Don't be surprised if she buries herself right away when you put the deeper substrate in, not necessarily for another molt right away but to de-stress or just for the fun of digging.

That is quite the bird cage under the crab tank!

I’m working on the substrate issue now. Making it to the pet store is about an hour drive from us, so it’s got to be planned with other shopping in the area.

As for the bird cage, it’s quite massive, designed to house an African Gray sized bird. There’s one that’s willed to me, but may come to live with us sooner than that.

This silly girl went for swim and then for a climb.

This little birdie is the current inhabitant of that huge cage. Meet Chuckie.

This is Alfie, he and I bonded years ago, but my father is still his main human. He’ll be going in the big cage that Chuckie is currently in.

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Dad-One · Post by **Dad-One** » Sun Nov 08, 2020 4:56 am

Silly little girl is at it again.

Upside down, chillin....

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crabbycasey · Post by **crabbycasey** » Sun Nov 08, 2020 10:05 am

Lol, she wants another treat!

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Dad-One · Post by **Dad-One** » Sun Nov 08, 2020 10:07 am

crabbycasey wrote:Lol, she wants another treat!

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Awfully funny way of asking!

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Pumpkincrab · Post by **Pumpkincrab** » Sun Nov 08, 2020 12:09 pm

I think she wants attention! "Dad, I want to be held! Pleeeeeeeease!"

crabbycasey · Post by **crabbycasey** » Sun Nov 08, 2020 5:56 pm

Dad-One wrote: Awfully funny way of asking!

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She’s playing dead, lol

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Dad-One · Post by **Dad-One** » Tue Nov 10, 2020 11:15 am

crabbycasey wrote: She’s playing dead, lol

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HCA: Hermit Crab Association