HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Thanks guys - we have decided to do this with our crabbies and fish tanks to be safe. I just hope the temps aren't too weird. It's supposed to be in the 20s here that day (Fahrenheit) so pretty cold! I'm going to try to keep them as stable as possible!!

Hey everyone, We moved a few months ago and just discovered that our new place has mold in the ductwork! We've scheduled a cleanout for next week, which will involve a chemical called BBJ Mold Control. Our two crabs are currently molting in a 50 gallon tank, so there's no way we can temporarily move...

Hey everyone, the other one finally passed after weeks of us nursing her. I don't think there was anything else we could have done. Now we've only got 2 left in our main tank. I cannot believe we lost 3 hermit crabs in 2 months when we've been doing everything so right. It's devastating. The two lef...

Bad news - Stevia, the one whose legs were deformed, has passed. I am so torn up about it. After round the clock care for nearly 2 weeks, we decided we were going to go see family for Thanksgiving. I told a pet sitter how to care for them, mostly just putting them in front of their Q tips with honey...

Not a good update - crab #2 (Stevia) keeps de-shelling, keep putting her back in she keeps coming up. Her tail is sort of curled up like she can't uncurl it into the shell properly. Also her limbs are so contorted into odd angles and her big claw is curled toward her body and it's like she can't mov...

Thanks. I am force feeding both right now and they eat when I put a Q tip right up to their mouth parts. Giving honey and calcium and peanut butter and spirulina. I hope it's enough. I also put them in the water dishes manually a couple times a day to encourage them to drink. It's all I can really d...

Crab #1 is retreated into her shell and not coming out, so keeping her dark, hoping she is trying to finish molting. Crab #2 is really active on the other hand, been eating her exo plus honey and peanut butter, so those are good signs. However her legs are really weird - they are like contorted at o...

Thank you - will try!

Hi guys, she is back in her shell this morning and staying upright. The other appears to be trying to finish molting. Do I just leave them be or try to force feed and get water in them?

thanks so much.

I feel like I've posted so much in this thread in the last couple months. As if losing one crab last month and having another one weak after a molt wasn't enough, our two current molters both came up today without their shells, naked. I've posted so many times about tank conditions and never had any...

Thank you! She's medium, about golf ball size or a little bigger. From the looks of it she did eat her exo - we didn't find any remnants in the iso tank where she finished up. She has always been a bit paler and lighter than the others but she is now really really pale, more so than usual, and of co...

Hi guys! I posted a month or so ago when we were getting ready to move and had no idea how to transport our crabs in their horribly heavy 50 gallon tank. We ended up pulling 2 crabs up who had recently gone down to molt and put them into a smaller 10 gallon tank - they went down right away and have ...

Thank you all. We miss her dearly.

Hey everyone, she has finally passed. I will wait for the fishy smell, but there is absolutely no movement today and I can't see any movement in her gills either. I am just glad that this whole agonizing experience is over for all of us. Thank you all so much for your encouragement and advice throug...

For those interested, here is a response I got from a wildlife vet acquaintance I have that I reached out to. I am not sure if I can get a hold of these substances myself, but in case anyone finds this useful I wanted to share. The method that I have used for invertebrates involves first inducing an...