isolating new crabs problem

[Tonys Hermits]

Ive bought crabs before but never isolated them befor and I heard they usually died in a year I need help to help them thrive and live please need help

[Geranium]

I am not sure isolating crabs prolongs their longevity. In the short term it is ideal for protecting those you have who are healthy from the illnesses, stress and malnutrition of the new crabs. It is important with new crabs to be hands off except for changes in water bowls and foods, so they can recover from the stress of their transportation to us. You do not need to isolate the new ones from each other as long as they are from the same location at the same time.When I have had brand new crabs from the petstore or bad previous owner conditions, I put them in a tank with just a little substrate, not enough to bury in for 2-3 days. Everything else is ideal. I then offer a variety of good quality foods in large quantities. After those 2-3 days of food, water and heat and humidity, I move them to another ISO tank set up exactly the same as the first only with 6-8 inches of substrate, playsand and EcoEarth mixed, heavy on the sand side. I continue to offer food and ideal conditions. Usually they will bury at this point and will often molt. I do not disturb them or dig for them until they have been under for more than six months if they are tiny, I would wait even longer if they are larger. I had a tiny one that I went looking for the body, assuming she was dead, after 4 months. She was very much alive and quite angry at being disturbed. It is also quite risky to disturb them if they are molting. I hesitated to use this method since it required moving them but have come to be of the opinion that they need food and water stabilization before they bury. Once I started using this method, the high rates of PPS deaths I experienced before diminished.Others successfully put their new crabs into ideal conditions, allowing them to bury immediately.

[Crabber85]

JMT has actually gone in depth on this subject in another thread and basically isolating does improve the odds of the initial post purchase survival rates but does not really do anything to increase long term survival rates.Isolation is done for two reasons to protect your existing crabs from any possible illnesses or pests that the new crab might be brining with it.The second reason is to give the new crab a chance to de-stress, tank up on nutrients and molt if need be.For a newly purchased hermitcrab having to do a meet and greet with its new tank mates and compete for space, shells and food and water adds so much extra stress to the poor crab that it typically goes into PPS and starts dropping limbs which is very harmful to the newbie.

[jenok]

Here is one of the links to the basic hermit crab care sheet. Under introducing new crabs it has some info your looking for. care sheet I like the way geranium said she does her new crabs with the exception of using the care sheets recommendations for getting the crabs adjusted to the proper humidity. Like start around 70% then go up a little until you get to the 80%. Another words using her tank info keep the first tank at 70% humidity and the 2nd tank at 75% and then your main tank should already be at 80%. Hope that makes since.