HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Well, tonight I noticed that the musty smell in the 10 gallon was stronger, and since I had not seen one of my molters for over 2 months, I did a very gentle dig. I found Willie on the bottom of the tank. Part of his exo was behind him and he was dead and decaying badly. I don't know what happened. ...

Michele,
Unfortunately they WERE still flooding the tank last week. Makes me sick. What makes me even sicker is that I lost Willie during a molt. I found his remains today.

Okay, here is what I know for sure. The big guy has settled down somewhat but still wants to hide. I still haven't been able to tell if he molted because I don't want to pick him up and stress him out. My tiny guy has definitely molted and he is a little pistol! He got into the WATER DISH and switch...

My I found 2 topside today. One had been down for over 8 weeks and the other had been down for a month or so (that one was a tiny). Haven't seen my other big guy yet, but I feel better now. I would hesitate to dig unless there is a fishy smell.

BTW, peggycats, I love your little "hermie nest".

Thanks, guys, for the support. These are my first crabbies and I'm a little (okay, a LOT) nervous about things. My little guy didn't seem any worse; just panicked, but he dug right under again. Now if my other guy comes up okay after having the whole tank dug up around him, we'll be fine. [smilie=fi...

One of my big guys was up top this morning after more than 8 weeks. He had torn the tank up and dug up my tiny who had been under for about a month. He had also changed shells. Now for the questions: 1. He was tearing around the tank in a frenzy, acting really scared. I couldn't get a really GOOD lo...

I'm sorry I don't have any advice for you since I'm new to this. I just wanted to offer my condolences.

bkn14, there is nothing to be embarrassed about. We all have questions. I actually got to watch a couple of mine because they are avid diggers. What they did was scoop sand with their legs and push it out of the way with their big pinchers. It's pretty cool to see because they can move a lot of sand...

From what I can gather, the old exo is mainly for calcium to help build a new exo, but I'm sure there are other nutrients in it, too.

I can just imagine him doing that, but a pic would be even better. *hint* It sounds incredibly cute.

I know my 2 large PP's are alive because I hear them. However, they are staying in pretty much the same spot unless my med PP starts digging. (I put an end to that today, tho, when I moved her to a new tat.) My biggest one was VERY friendly and the other one wasn't really bashful, either. Wish I kne...

I was holding my breath last night, hoping my newbie, Spitz, would change out of his WAAAY too small shell from Petsmart. He checked several out, but didn't try any on. Then this morning I get up and Bandit has changed out of her nice fitting shell back into the HUGE turbo. Oh well, they're gonna ha...

Well, I guess no news is good news or else everyone is sick of my posts.

I love happy endings and he is beautiful!