PANZERWELTEN-FORUM

Hi,
I have been keeping Geosesarma crabs for many years, mainly the Devil crabs, but recently started a large tank (52" long) of the purple Vampire crabs . They are doing well and I have many young crabs and they are molting and doing fine.
However, I have noticed that I have little white bugs nearly everywhere in the tank. They are land based but they are everywhere, near all the crab holes and I am worried they either will kill, or are killing my crabs. I thought they were Springtails at first, but I haven't added any Springtails. I don't know what they are, but I find it worrying because I found one of my bigger crabs dead today and those bugs were all over it. What if they are causing the crab's death?
Does anyone know what they are? And is there any way of getting rid of them. I had them in one of my other tanks and I literally took the tank completely apart, and threw away everything and started fresh. But they are back now and I don't know what to do.
If they are harmless then I am okay with them being there, but with the amount that's in the tank, I am guessing they aren't good.

If anyone can tell me what they are, or why they are there, I would very much appreciate it. I have so many crabs now, it would be a shame for them to be killed off at this stage.

Thank you.

Hi,

I think those animals are springtails. They live almost everywhere and started a new settlement in your tank.
My (added) springtails sitting on death crabs and they eat the crab.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springtail

Best regards

Hi there

springtails appear out of nothing, or at least it seems so to us. So these are a good possibility, and they do eat anything rotting or dead. So if a crab dies it is not unusual that the springtails get on this feast.

Another possibility would be small isopods. There are species we call "white woodlice" in German that we advice as alternative or addition to white sprintails because they do the same job.

You might try to disturb the specimens or maybe blow at them and see how they react. Springtails you can see really spring then, isopods not, they crawl.

Anyway, neither of them does any harm to your crabs – although they should not reproduce that much that the get the main lifeform in the tank.

Hi, thank you for your responses. I don't think they are Springtails ... I would guess they are the woodlice because I did as you say and when I blow on them, they crawl, not jump. There just seems to be so many. But they haven't taken over the tank, it's just that they are in high numbers that I've never seen in any of my crab tanks before. I do have some pieces of wood on the land and maybe they are living on that and that's what's causing them to reproduce so quickly and profusely.
As long as they won't hurt my crabs, that's the important part.

Also, on a different note ..... do you think I should add iodine to my water? I've heard people saying it helps. I've found recently some of my crabs dead in the water, but they aren't soft, as if they've molted, and I can't see any reason why they've died. I just don't want more dying because a couple of them were females and obviously I want my females to live. I'm still seeing crabs of different sizes, so I'm guessing they are still reproducing.

You should maybe post few images of your tank, I think this is easier to find some reasons why they die.
I guess that your crabs are dying while skinning. Maybe they got interupt by some other crabs or they are old or you have just badluck ... There can be so much reasons for it.
I think you don't need to iodine your water, the reasons are probably some others.