Land hermit crabs do not have any real known ailments. This sounds ridiculous as ever living creature most have its own set of diseases they can suffer but truth to be told right now very few, if any are actually known. More research will have to go into this area. However there are several known causes for concern as regards health. These would mainly be the external problem of mites and some internal probs. such as respirotry failure.
Here is what is known so far.
Mites: Every creature has to have some form of parasite that will leach off it and hermits are no exception. Although they are not a real life threatener they are not pleasant and if not treated they will cause the crab stress which in turn shall possibily kill the crab. Indirect effect. Prevention is better than cure so make sure you sterilze(boiling for 5-mins or freezing) everything that goes into the tank and make sure you quarentine new crabs that are to be introducted to the tank. To rid your crabs of mites bath them and a lot of them will come off in the water. However some will harbour in the shell so they will need bathed several times. Remove every single item in the tank and throughly clean it. If you can throw away the substrate and buy new stuff then try and do so. If you want to keep the sand or gravel. Boil it, then for gravel : let it dry naturally, or for sand:bake it in the oven till it dries. Do the same to every thing that was in the tank. Hopefully then your mites will have been boiled to death and your tank mite free.
Respirtory Probs: Hmm. There is not much known about this other than it can happen. The main cause is exposure to chlorine and other such nasty things in the crabs bathing and drinking water. These things in the water , over time, blister the crabs gills which then leaves them having trouble breathing. Its thought to be a long and not very nice death for a crab which can be prevented by simply giving your crab distilled water. Water that is safe for fish is safe for crabs that is the rule of thumb. It is thought to be pretty irreversible so plz plz avoid the chlorine water as much as possible. Hard tap water is the most damaging to the crabs.
Unexplained Deaths??: Sometimes these things just happen. Just like in people. But for the most part there is a reason, esp if a lot of your crabs have been dying. Rethink everything youve done from youve owned your crabs, such as the water youve given them. Their temps, humidity everything you can think of and see if there is anything that is out of place of if anything has happened recently. Note crabs will die from exposure to aerosols and deoderants and all those kinds of sprays b/c the crabs breathe the vapour from them. Avoid using them anyway near the tank if possible. If still you cannot find anything wrong then maybe a mystery disease is to blame, one we dont know about the only way to tell would be to have a scientist to perform a post mortem on the crab and even then it would prob be inconclusive as we know so little about them and how they work.
Heatsroke: Although they like their tropical home they can get too hot. Anything over 32 degress C. is regarded as dangerous. So try and stay away from that sort of temp. Recovery from heatstroke is not good with little to no crabs surviving it, so avoid it. Do the sensible thing and keep crabs out of direct sunlight and make sure you know how to use your UTH(under tank heaters) before switching them on. It could proove fatal to our shelled friends. |
