HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I would stress the importance of NEVER digging up a hermit crab ... digging them up can cause them to stress and die... it's very important to keep them buried you never know if they molting or just de-stressing. This was the biggest mistake i made back in 2009 when I got my first 2 hermit crabs (no...

Hi Anne, I've had numerous issues over the years with heat and humidity. Its a good idea to have a small hole not covered with saran wrap for air. I have glass lids to keep the heat and humidity in the tank. How big is your tank? Depending on the size of the tank I can tell you what size UTH's you n...

oooh wish there was a smiley face for a "light bulb" moment LOL. thanks for clarifying that for me. All those great foods I've been ignoring have been fine then ...

also does anyone know if absorbic acid is harmful? I see it in a lot of baby food, and i don't buy it as it sounds bad ... but I thought I'd ask anyways as I don't see it on the list.

Great List! Very Helpful! Perhaps you could add Tomato to your color enhancing list for Strawberry hermit crabs .. powdered, or sun dried, but they do eat the seeds of the raw ones too. it's loaded with Lycopene ... the most of all Carotene foods apparently. Also Rose Hip is a color enhancing Red-ca...

I only had one surface molt in the 1.5 years that I've owned hermit crabs, and it was right at the beginning when I knew nothing about crabs and kept digging them up He did survive, but now he has had about 4-5 more molts and all have been underground. Herb is a PP. Nobody else has had any surface m...

I was looking at one of my crab tanks from another room and saw Speedy doing something weird, so I inched closer to get a better look and he was cleaning his gills!! So cool!! Unfortunately when I moved to get my camera he got shy and moved most of his body back into his shell. I had never seen any ...

Hercules has a strange marking I just noticed on the left side of his body. I looked at my other crabs and don't see it on any of them. Looks almost like it's stretching. See picture below. it's black, close to the opening of the shell. Looks like a few black lines with another line crossing them.

he is a rescue that I got about a month ago. he's a strawberry hermit crab, and is completely hanging out of a heavy small shell painted blue with a racing stripe. gah!!! There is a large selection of shells and he is in an ISO already. I always leave them in for a few months. There is only one othe...

my strawberry that is in a painted shell, i really don't understand why he won't change. I mean I have crabs that haven't changed shells in a year, but at least they fit somewhat in the shell, and are not hanging out at all times. This one is not only hanging out of his shell, can't pull his legs in...

I didn't realize bleach was safe for crabs, i guess you boil them AFTER you bleach them? I think I might have one or two plastic shells, not sure... both are inhabited. How can you tell? they aren't painted or anything... though i still have one crab in a painted shell =( he won't change into the HU...

the dude in my avatar has molted 4 times in ONE year. Is this normal? He has survived all 4 molts, and just came out of his most recent one with nice long nails and fuzzy legs! He is about 3x the size he was when we got him in September 2009. He was about the size of a quarter when we got him... in ...

thanks! He's burried right now but I will when he comes up... there are a few pics of him in my photos though.

oh great, I thought Sass was an E but now I'm not sure! what the heck? Thanks, this is a really good guide to go by!

My dear Pip did not survive his first molt with us. After being gone more than 3 months, I got very suspicious. As all my other crabs had gone down and come up in the same time period. Shone a flashlight on the underside of the tank and found body, didn't look right so I dug him up. He was naked, an...