|
|
 |
|
|
 |
November 2008:
"Flower Paradise" |
| View details |
| If you are a member of Hermit Crab Paradise, visit the link above to enter the competition. If not, please register first. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Survey #023:
What is your second storey made of? |
| View survey |
| If you are a member of Hermit Crab Paradise, visit the link above to vote. If not, please register first. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| Say NO to Crabinacup sold at Walmart! Such humiliation and animal cruelty against hermit crabs must not be tolerated. |
| Say NO to the painted shells sold in many pet stores! Hermit crabs are not toys, nor are their shells. |
| You can help our protest by signing the petitions and joining many other crabbers in the battle for the respect of hermit crabs. |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| If Hermit Crab Paradise has proven helpful to you, please link back to us! You may use the 90×90 icon above if you wish, but please upload it to your own server. We appreciate your support! |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Like humans, hermit crabs too can become ill from a disease. It is unfortunate that some people take no action when they see that their hermit crab is becoming unusually inactive or so-called 'dying', because the pet store owner told them "They don't last long." There vets for cats and dogs, but there aren't any for hermit crabs. Therefore, we'll simply have to be the vets ourselves and try the best we can. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Few people have actually researched into this topic for hermit crabs. So far, hermit crabs are not known to transfer diseases to their owners, with the exceptions of allergies of course. One disease known to attack hermit crabs as well as their relatives such as lobsters, crayfish and sea crabs is "shell rot". This infection has also been given a number of other names, such as "shell disease" and "rust spot". It appears as dark mysterious patches on your hermit crab's exoskeleton. They are different to the much tinier freckle-like spots you see on their skin. The fungi are believed to feed on the chitin (pronounced as "kye-tin") of a hermit crab's exoskeleton. |
| Shell disease usually infects those who have an injury. For humans, our skin helps shield us from most contagious bacteria and viruses, but such a barrier can broken with cuts, allowing germs to invade. It is akin to hermit crabs and their exoskeleton. If they lose a leg or claw, the fungi may be able to feast on the hermit crab. |
Below is a link to an article that we found with useful information about shell rot:
http://www.fishresearch.org/.../shell_disease.asp |
|
|
|
|
|
| Since there are no tablets or chemicals available in the pet stores for us to treat our hermit crabs, we can improve the aquarium conditions and the hermit crab's diet. Place the infected hermit crab into an isolation unit and add spirulina to the food dish daily. Check out the fish section for spirulina flakes. Don't forget to add meat and vegetables, as these are equally important to prepare your hermit crab for a successful moult. Hermit crabs are able to free themselves from shell rot through moulting and shedding the infected exoskeleton off. If the hermit crab moulted on the surface and you have access to the shed exoskeleton, remove the shell rot patches and dispose of them. |
| It is also important to keep the tank clean and food fresh to fight bacterial and fungal growth. Mixing some sea salt with the moist sand also helps hinder the growth of these unwanted micro-organisms. |
|
|
|
|
