Mites. :(

I discovered two different types of mites on two of my hermit crabs, Chipper and Sweetie (who molted recently) last night. I gave them both baths.

But it looks like I'm going to have to do something more about it. I went to the HCA forums and asked what I could do about it. I mentioned how a deep clean is not really possible right now because there are crabs underground who are probably molting (some have been down for over a month). Several people suggested buying beneficial predatory mites, but they also mentioned they can be expensive. I don't exactly have money coming out of my wazoo right now, so I asked if there was something else I could do that would be just as effective. Someone recommended setting up a temporary 2nd tank (I do have another one) and giving all the crabs who are above ground baths and putting them in the temp tat. Except that I don't have a second humidity gauge. :\ it looks like I don't have a choice though... I suppose I can switch the humidity gauge between the two tanks (seeing as these kind of mites don't occupy the rest of the tat, they stay on the crabs) every few hours to monitor the humidity level.

Then when the other crabs come up, I will give them all baths as well and deep clean the tat. Unfortunately, I don't have enough sand to completely change out all the sand. I might have to call a few petstores and see how much some Forest Bedding or Eco Earth costs (the kind that comes in a 3 brick package). If that's too expensive I'll simply go and buy some sand at Reno for about $3. Of course, if we had a working oven, I could just sterilize the sand by baking it a few times. But I don't know.

Anyway. I have no salt or fresh water left, so right now I'm going to make some more crab-safe water.

I peeked into the tat a few minutes ago and saw one of the four crabs who came in Haitian Tree snail shells in the food bowl. I had named them Houdini (because he managed to escape the ISO), Shelly, Enlil and Enki (these two were both missing a walking leg when I took them home). Shelly changed shells and then dug down a day or two after I first brought him home. Houdini has remained above ground all this time. That leaves Enlil and Enki, both of whom dug down almost immediately to distress and, apparently, to molt! I can't be sure which crab it is, but whoever it is, he definitely molted and regrew his walking leg. Yay! That's 5 successful molts so far!

When Mom gets back, I'll go get the plastic 10 gallon tank from the storage room and clean it out. I'll have to set it up and give it a few hours to see what the temperature and humidity settle at.

Alright, I'll update again later. See you!