Hermit crabs have maggots in their shells what do I do?

[Cierra Nugent]

My mother bought hermit crabs from a wholesale place (I know bad idea) and when they arrived one hermit crab was covered in maggots and missing an entire leg so we took it home thinking it was dead. We later found out it was alive so we gave it multiple baths in dechlorinated water until no more maggots came off and kept him isolated for about a week then put him in with the rest. Except now others keep dying. Today we found one dead and when we picked him up he fell out of the shell and was covered in maggots (he had been dead for less than a day). The tank has proper conditions and fresh food and water and we sterilize everything that goes in their tank. So what can I do to help them? I don't want anymore of them to die.
(We also bought 5 jumbo crabs but they seem perfectly healthy aside from one missing a part of its pincer)

[Rachel]

I'd separate any affected crabs into an isolation tank, check ALL of them for maggots and I'd strip out the substrate and put new in after cleansing the tank, toss or clean all the decorations, boil the spare shells and remove all the food type items. Eggs can take a while to hatch so you need to keep them apart for a lot longer than a week, there may also be other health issues going on that are leading to the maggots feeding on dead or decaying tissue and by reintroducing them to soon you could spread that further. The deaths could also be due to post purchase stress and the maggots just swarming the dying crabs due to there being a food source and high heat/humidity for them to breed in. Bathing probably is the best way to remove them if you can't gently pick the maggots off but try not to do it too often since it is stressful for crabs that are obviously already having issues.

You don't say how many crabs you have or what size tank but overcrowding will make any health issues and stress worse so ensure there is a lot of space, especially if you have true jumbos which need an absolute bare minimum of 55 US gallons just with one in the colony. With five jumbos in a tank they need a pretty huge one.

How do you sterilise what goes into the tank? Generally most stuff doesn't actually need full sterilising and they are fine with things like bark, branches and leaf litter going in basically as you find them. Any cleaning should be done just with water and salt, no chemicals especially as the crabs will ingest any natural products and thus be eating any chemicals they absorbed.

Proper conditions means different things to different people so it is worth looking at your setup to make sure everything is as perfect as possible, good deep playsand and coir mix substrate (3x the height of the largest crab), 28c heat for most species, 80% humidity (read on a digital hygrometer not analogue), fresh dechlorinated water and marine salt water, plenty of spare shells in the right sizes and types, hiding and climbing places, a varied natural food diet etc. Stores in particular often give out poor care advice and it causes a lot of deaths in new crabs or even ones that have been had a while depending on the issues. I've linked to some care info in the source box for you, I hope this helps.

You may find it helps to feed only dried foods for a few days to cut down the number of food sources for the maggots, this does depend on the species but could be worth a try. High energy foods like natural bee pollen and honey are good for ailing crabs (especially if infections are present), as are raspberry leaves, krill, other protein and calcium sources, chamomile flowers and seaweed (especially spirulina powder). The marine salt water being present in the tank will also allow them to bathe any injuries as they need and provides essential minerals. Other than that try to keep contact to a minimum, the less stress the better for them for now. Look at contacting the supplier to tell them what is going on as well if you can.

There are good forums, groups on facebook etc available that might be worth joining to talk things over properly. I hope your little guys pull through hun. x

[missy b]

Flush them all down the toilet, and go get some healthy pets.