HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I was just curious to see of I am the oldest member in the HCA. Everyone here is just wonderful, but many are so young. I love learning from you all. O. K. now to the point, I am 67 yrs old. I realize people are sensitive about age, and that's fine, I was just curious. Maybe also the youngest, too? ...

When I pick up my crabs to give them some couch time at night, I put me finger lightly, on their big and small pincher and they press with resistence against my finger. Has anyone else ever experienced this? Every one of my crabs do this. I wonder if they're playing with me or saying "don't do that,...

It's really no big thing to be concerned about. I do it twice a year from Ohio to the Florida Keys. They're in the back seat with my Lab mix. I put them all together (8) in a tat that is round with screening on it. I give them food and water at night in the motel room. The bottom is gravel, like it ...

It hurts when you try so hard and you think he's going to make it and then he crashes so fast and dashes all of your emotions.

Update on Hubert: he died. I knew things were not going well, when he didn't seem to have the strength to walk. It seemed that his legs were too weak, and he was not interested in eating his exo. He died in my hand.

I had cleaned Hubert's tat yesterday and he was playing happily with his buddies in the sink. When I got thru I put them all back. Hubert after about 5 hours haden't moved, so, I looked at him. He fell out of his shell, had a dull eyed look, but still was able to move his abdomen a little. I put him...

Years ago when I first found my first Hermie, Hymes he started about 6 months later loosing his legs. Knowing not very much about crab ownership, FMR sounded impressive to me. Well they told me to feed them some kind of fish food to help him! Needless to say my poor baby died, probably from too much...

I change my crabs water everyday, without fail. I'm kind of funny that way. I feel they should always have clean water. Everytime I change their water, the bottom on the water dish has a slimey feel to it. Do crabs secrete anything when they're drinking to do this to the dish? Just wondering.

I handle all of my crabs from my teenies (not as much, if one gets away from me, good luck finding them), but they all respond in a most positive way and never pinch me. Good thing, seeing that I have a Jumbo gentle giant.

I have my 10 gal. on an end table by my couch. Sometimes they're more entertaining than the programs on the TV! My round tat is on the dinette table, so we eat dinner with them almost every night. The smallest tat is in the computer room so I can watch the really teeny ones when I'm on the computer....

This is something that is hard for me to understand, whether it's racing crabs or dogs. It is so foreign to the poor things that you know they had to be scared to death. Pinching you was natural to them, so don't blame them for letting you know " I don't want to do this!" Please don't race them anym...

Last night while watching TV next to the tat,I hear this clicking sound. I say what is that? Henry was stressed/PO'd with Hanibal because he was in Henry's favorite spot in the tat. So to keep Hanibal from getting his butt kicked by super jumbo Henry, I moved him to the other side. As soon as Haniba...

My hermie Hymes died in March of heat related stress. A representative from the Florida Marine Research Center (FMR) told me to use a mixture of 1 tablet of Tetracycline to 1 half gallon of water and spray my hermie 3 times a day to try to save him along with iso and water and honey and cuttlebone m...