HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I have 6 purple pinchers that i’ve seen tonight (a couple months ago I had 10 ~ a lot went down for a molt at the same time and started popping back up over time one by one. i’ve came across 1 empty shell awhile ago but haven’t seen any dead crabs or smelled anything. But for awhile 7 is all i’ve seen - including wall-e but tonight & for about a month I’ve seen only 6.). Their size range is from small (about the size of a water bottle cap), medium (idk what to compare to but i guess this is the average size hermit crab) and large/jumbo (I think large/jumbo is the same? but they’re like the size of a baseball). I’m concerned about the small one Wall-E, i’ve had him for a few months and he lived along the jumbos in harmony. Last I saw him was about a month ago. Could he have died? He’s the only small one I have the rest are medium-large. But he did fine with the other crabs and no one picked on him that I remember. He’s one of my favorites and i’m worried he could be dead ): here’s some pictures of him alone and him with the rest of the crabs (the bucket i have them in is just a temporary place i put them in for about 5-10min when im cleaning up their 75g crabitat), the crab with the white shell is the average medium size of my crabs and the teal shell is the size of what my 3 large/jumbos are






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Hello I have crabs from all sizes that live together with no issues. Is the concern because you haven't seen him? Perhaps he is molting. Sometimes the little guys come up and go back down more quickly than the larger ones. As long as you are meeting their requirements - you shouldn't have any issues Try not to worry. I know it is easier said than done

Update: Wall-E finally appeared !!!:) im very happy! im glad his molt was successful. I saw him just a few moments ago and he was checking out the food I had put out earlier. He was very fast when moving around about the tank, he was more skittish and shy though before he went down for a molt. He also doubled in size!! He lookin thick now


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I noticed in the bucket you kept hem in there are crab legs. Am I missing something?

AwesomeHermit wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 14, 2020 10:53 am

I noticed in the bucket you kept hem in there are crab legs. Am I missing something?

Good catch! I didn't even look at the pictures!

What is up with all of the rocks too?

If I recall from another thread, the container with some rocks is her temporary holding bucket, and the crabs just go in there to get them out of the way when she is cleaning etc the main tank.

curlysister wrote: ↑

Fri Jul 17, 2020 11:34 am

If I recall from another thread, the container with some rocks is her temporary holding bucket, and the crabs just go in there to get them out of the way when she is cleaning etc the main tank.

Great, thanks!

That doesn’t change why the legs are there tho

AwesomeHermit wrote:That doesn’t change why the legs are there tho

My notifications for this app are turned off. The bucket is a temporary spot where I put my crabs in (that are not burrowed) when I am adjusting things in the main tank etc and they’re only in there for a short time (5-10min). The rocks/sand in the bucket are safe and don’t contain anything I just use it like a “ground” surface instead of a plain bucket where they are slipping around on the plastic surface. The claw/crab legs are from a crab that did a surface molt and had died but it gave off no smell and I was still *new* to crabbing so I thought it could still be alive. After almost 2 weeks of no hope it could still be alive I was transporting its body to the bucket for a moment until my dad could dispose of the body properly (I didn’t want to do it myself). I also kept the crab in a small carrier (the ones they give you when you take home a new crab from petco/petsmart). Since the material of the box I used to put the crab in was deteriorating from the humidity of the main tank it was falling apart and so was the crab. When my dad finally was able to come dispose of the crab the container was falling apart and could not just be picked up or it would basically fall apart (I had already moved it from the main tank and into the bucket and that process damaged the container even more.) So the condition of the container was so bad my dad could not simply pick it up and walk the distance he needed to dispose of the crab. He went and got something else to carry the body in and while doing that I dumped the crabs body onto the sand in the bucket. There was things I kept in the isolation container that I wasn’t going to throw away anyway which is why I dumped its body. Because the crab had been dead for almost 2 weeks it’s body was falling apart too. Hint the missing limbs. Anyway after everything that happened I never picked up its limbs and set the bucket away (I had things to do and it wasn’t a priority at the moment). When I got the bucket out for next time I didn’t remember the limbs and was already placing crabs in there. Since then the limbs have been picked up the pictures in my post are not new.

I understand your concern for the limbs but I hope I cleared things up and gave you some backstory and not a short small response. Sorry!


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Youre fine. Sorry about the loss of your crab and I was just confused

AwesomeHermit wrote:Youre fine. Sorry about the loss of your crab and I was just confused

You’re totally okay for feeling confused! I would be too. I was genuinely embarrassed when I looked back at this thread & saw the concern from my fellow crabbers. I apologize again for being inconsiderate! & thank you i’m sad to say I believe the crabby died from PPS (or PPDS)


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