Post by dgarrou on Nov 5, 2014 20:49:57 GMT -5
I am bracing for the holocaust of criticisms that might rain down on me..because.. what did I do? I left my crabs alone for 2 and a half weeks.
Probably should not have gotten crabs 3 months before having to leave on a business/vacation trip out of the country. Did not think that one through.
To top it off, before I left 3 crabs were still "down" in the spare tank (it was their old tank before I upgraded, and obviously I had to leave them in there).
The first thing I did was to replicate their tank (expensive and a lot of work!) at my store so my employees could take care of them there. But the more I thought about it, it would be very stressful for them for me to yank them out of their tank and take them somewhere else, since it takes them so long to relax into their surroundings as it is and it would feel/small different.
So I monitored both tanks at home for a couple of weeks to see if I could achieve equilibrium with humidity and heat-I could. Luckily living in SoCal it is the same temp every day! Then I loaded up both tanks with multiple food and calcium dishes; and the largest salt and fresh dishes I could find. I decided that they seem to do best when just left alone, and reasoned that as scavengers they won't care if the food molds a bit.
Now, I know how often I have to rake my tank and clean the glass, so I braced myself for an utter disaster when I returned and prayed no one would perish. I warned my husband that it is possible that we could come in the front door and smell an ungodly dead fish odor if someone did not make it through the molt.
Imagine my surprise when I walked in and everyone just looked at me; the tank was a little mussed but not as bad as usual; there was still food left; and in tank #2 tell-tale tracks and discarded old shells told me that two of the molters were up (the third came up the next day). The fresh water was lower that I would have liked probably due to evaporation and the airstones weren't working but overall I could not believe it! All the stress I had been going through was for nothing.
Not that I advocate leaving them this long, but I wanted to share this in case anyone else gets in this predicament. These are not pets you can just take in a carrier to your local vet to board!
All in all a good experience (and yes, besides feeling anxious about them, I DID miss them when away!).