Are we responsible?

[emmac350]

I have recently been wondering about how much we as crab owners are responsible for our hermies and any limbs that they may lose.

I have decent conditions in my tank - I mean, I assume that my conditions are optimal if I was accepted as an adopter on the CSJ Adoption site. Obviously, none of us have 100% perfect tanks - there's always something that we probably could improve upon, but we all do as much as we can.

Despite my efforts, I have had 3 crabs who just mysteriously lost legs in my just shy of 1 year of owning crabs. The first was before I was an adopter and had my conditions right, so maybe Rack lost his leg because of something I was doing wrong, but none of the other crabs in the tank had any similar reactions to anything, so I'm not sure that is true.

Nibs lost her leg at some point - she had it when I bought her, but didn't 3 months later. I never noticed a leg anywhere, and she has since molted and regenerated it, but I don't know why she lost it. She lost it after I was approved as an adopter, so my conditions at least met a certain minimum level of optimum for crabs.

Then Toodles came up from a molt a few weeks ago missing a leg. She had it before digging in, but came up without it. I have chalked that loss up to her having problems with molting, and she dropped it because she was running out of energy to successfully molt. She's still just as active as she was pre-molt, so I know there isn't anything that is bothering her otherwise.

I think it is good to explore whether or not we as crab owners are to blame for our crabs' mysterious limb losses? I have had all the crabs for longer than the PPS destress period when they lost the legs, and all are still acting completely normal. Is it my fault that the crabs lost single legs? I don't hear any chirping in the tank so I don't think someone is beating up on them and pulling out the legs, but should I feel like it is my fault that their legs go missing? I mean, these are wild animals and I don't have nearly as much time handling them as I would like to (work, molts, and not wanting to disturb them too much when they're post-molt) so I don't think that I could make the argument that I'm exposing them to something when I hold them. I'm curious as to what you all think - where do YOU think the responsibility lies?

[ladybug15057]

Not sure how to reply to this Emma except:

"She lost it after I was approved as an adopter, so my conditions at least met a certain minimum level of optimum for crabs."

This is the key phrase for all approved adopter profiles "met a certain minimum level of optimum for crabs."
Even with as strict as the criteria seem to be, it is still minimum level
Can we determine why limb loss? To a degree yes. If the hermie is being provided all the criteria known to date that they need is being provided, not really BUT let's remember that research continues as well as experience with keeping hermies as captive pets. With this in mind, even the criteria known nowadays change at times too.
But if one is not providing what is known to date (humidity, temps, shells, proper water, etc) then yes it can be said they lost limbs or their lives due to the lack of...
Another thing to remember too, many times when hermies do have a spat not always will they chirp. They are not like children or adults who will begin to get louder or yell when fighting. And IMO nobody is around their tank 24/7 to know either what is actually happening at all times.
Several years ago I was talking with Kathy from FMR Pets. During our conversation she was a little beside herself. She mentioned that they had gotten a shipment of hermies in. Seemed almost 1/2 of them were missing a limb or more so they were separated from the others. There weren't that many loose limbs when they arrived so she felt they were captured with them already missing,

[Wai]

Perhaps hermit crabs will drop limbs to psychological reasons too, such as loneliness or unhappiness? We definitely have to take some responsibility for limb loss, but who is to blame if we don't know what caused the limb loss?

[CrabbyJo]

I don't think anyone should feel guilt over a hermie losing a limb. We certainly should double check everything to try to determine the cause, but lacking any obvious problems in the tank, I think we will just have to chalk it up to wild animals that we don't fully understand yet.