New - How to get crab to change shell...

[MandM]

We've had crabs for about 3 months. Is there anything I need to know?
Here's what I've been made aware of:
- coconut brick bedding with salted dechlor water or safely baked sand with now metals are okay and gravel in moderation
- humidity 70 percent bare min.
- heating lower at night higher during day bare min 73 range 73 to 82
- no commercial foods and add calcium bone
- lots of shells boiled and misted with salted water. Salt and dechlor should be fish type without slim coat help


There are pics of our tank under other in the gallery with the crabitats. I know we need more climbing stuff. The pic shows a low sub level but it was because the day we set it up and took pics, the store only had one brick of coconut bedding.

Is there anything I'm missing. I just killed a crab that we had just gotten. The others are fine but I managed to kill our favorite one. He was bought just a week before he passed. Suggestions please!

Oh, and our gauge is about 30% off.

[ladybug15057]

There is quite a bit to know about hermies and honestly entirely too involved to try to put into a post. Best thing one can do is go to the Crab Care section and read the care information. Any questions after reading it, then please post in the appropriate forum after using the search box in the upper right corner of the screen.

[CrabbyJo]

Sorry to hear about the crab that passed - I hate to hear you say you killed it, was it through some careless accident?
You need to remember one thing about new crabs - sometimes they are so stressed from what they've been through that they are on their way out anyway. Sometimes it takes them a month after they are with us before they pass. This is called Post Purchase Syndrome, or PPS.
When you do get new crabs, it's best to leave them alone for at least two weeks - no handling, no disturbing, while they get used to not having to compete for territory and food and water, as well as adjusting to the "sounds" in your home.
Here is a good article to read about PPS: PPS: Preventing Death

Do take a look at the care sheets here, you will find out so much info. If you have any questions about what you find there, there are plenty here who will be happy to answer your questions.

[MandM]

Well, I assumed that I brought about the death. Paradise seemed fine at the store. I've tried to read all I can on crab keeping but I'm assuming I'm missing something somewhere. Her conditions at the store were terrible so I thought by buying her we would be helping her but I guess I was wrong. After reading the article you linked to, I see that it could have been going from no humidity, no heat, and cedar type mulch at the store to our tank. I just thought getting a crab to proper conditions immediately was the way people were supposed to go. It makes sense to give them time to adjust. I was going to toss my daughter's old ten gallon but now I'll keep it for future crab isolation and adjustments. Thanks for the article. I'm praying I don't kill anymore of her crabs out of stupidity!

[CrabbyJo]

Hon, first stop beating yourself up. It wasn't stupidity at all, merely a lack of information.
I too helped speed the death of a crab the same way, bringing him from a dry, cold store to a humid, warm tank. He died in a day, and over time and more reading I discovered that his cause of death was likely drowning in the moist air he was not used to.
Chances are, he would have died anyway, coming from such bad conditions. Chances are, your little Paradise would have passed as well. Her passing has given you the opportunity to learn how to better care for your crabs, so it did have a good outcome, though you lost her. Same for me with my Larry, I don't believe I would have found the excellent forums (this one, and another) that I found while trying to figure out just why he died.
Now you are on your way to providing an excellent crab home, so take that to heart. And it's a great idea to keep the 10 gallon for an iso... watch out for garage sales, you may end up with a few more!