why did my crab die?

Question
QUESTION: hello. i have written to this site before about my hermit crabs. i had
two crabs. and they both lived a while, long and healthy. recently, my
smaller crab passed away. im not exactly sure why. but one morning i went
to pick him up and he was white and sort of ashy looking. we then buried
him. i was also scared for my remaining crab who died this morning. im
wondering if both crabs died of the same reason. the second crab that died
had been acting odd. he would come out of his shell everyday and just sit in
his water bowl or climb the wood. then at night he would return to his shell.
the first night that he escaped his shell was the day after his buddy's death.
he went in and out of his shell as he pleased for about three days. but earlier
today, i noticed that he was no longer crawling around. and when i had
picked him up he was "nude." he was out of his shell and dead. i have
absolutely no idea how or why he died. but i would like to find out why, that
way i could correct the problem for my future crabs. thank you.
kaitie.

ANSWER: Okay. First, do you mind if I ask you a few questions. It could be a number of things and I can tell that you are really concerned about finding the reason.

What is your temperature and humidity? What kinds of water are you offering?

Is there any chance that your crab was molting? The crab that was out of the shell, did it have a complete abdomen or was it just from the head down?

The answers to these questions will really allow me to help you more.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: i always try to keep my humidity around 60 or 70 percent, spraying the tank
with mist from a water bottle daily. the the thermometer always says the
temperature is the same- 80 degrees.
in the tank, there are two separate water bowls- a salt water bowl and a fresh
water bowl. there used to be a sponge in the fresh water bowl, but i took it
out a while ago.
oh my gosh! i really hope my crab wasnt molting, we already buried him. i
would feel terrible if i knew that i buried my crab alive! but when i found him,
he was fully out of his shell and i could see his whole body; tail and
everything.
thank you so much.
i hope to hear from you soon.

ANSWER: Okay, first thing first. If you saw his tail, he wasn't molting. When they molt they only shed the exo from their armor plate forward, not from their abdomen so if you saw the tail it was not molting. :)

The humidity is low. It should be between 74 and 82 on a calibrated hygrometer. My favorite way to raise humidity is to get some natural moss and keep it in the tank. You can read my article about moss here.  http://naturallycrabby.com/?p=15

It has all the stuff in it that you need to buy and set it up.

What do you feed them? What kind of bedding are they on?

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: ok i read your moss article and will be sure to use it with my future crabs. im
also glad to hear that he wasn't molting.
i fed them... im not sure what it was called, but i got it at petco and they
looked like small brown pellets.
the half of the tank with the heater under it had coconut shavings and the
rest of the tank was hermit crab sand. the coconut was there to also keep
humidity.
could my crab have died from old age?

Answer
Crabs really need a diet that consists of a variety of foods and that changes every few days. www.epicureanhermit.com has a list of foods that are safe and unsafe. Much of them you probably already have in your yard or kitchen. There are also several hermit crab food stores around that sell high quality foods that you can rotate. My favorite is http://www.thehappyhermitcrab.com/  

The coconut fiber will help with humidity as long as your lid is mostly air tight at you keep the bedding moist.

Unless your crab was very very large (grapefruit size) the odds are that it was not old age. Crabs can live 30-50 years in the wild.