HCA: Hermit Crab Association

So, my biggest crab, Rocky, and I have been through a lot the last 5 days or so. I guess it all started early last week or the week before when Rocky decided to vacate his awful shellacked pet store shell for a shell that just barely covered his abdomen. I decided to take away his pet store shell be...

Sounds like adoption would be a good choice for you! In this way, you won't be supporting the wild harvest of hermit crabs and the subsequent abysmal care they receive on their journey to you. I made a post here about some methods I used to adopt all my crabs. It took me about 3 months to fill my 55...

An update to the saga: Found Mystery Crab hanging out in the freshwater without a shell on last night. Luckily I stayed up later than usual because this was at 1 am. I gathered a tupperware and shells and started to try and catch her. However, I hesitated a little because I was not sure where to gra...

I really think she's ok. Eating, drinking, moving around, hardened up. I have an iso that is available if that changes, however. Her only major problem is the missing BP.

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Hey guys :) Just wanted to share this mystery with you all because I don't think my husband wants to be retold the whole situation another time :hlol: Anywho, I woke up this morning to find a newly molted crab on the surface. Yay, right?! Well, yes, until I noticed the absence of a BP and the dented...

Very cool! Thanks for the info.

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Are you familiar with fish tank maintenance? In the pool you are describing, you really have to change the water completely every 2-3 days. BUT, if you got a filter (which I know you have to get a special kind for a salt water pool, but I'm not sure what kind that would be), you could cycle the tank...

Just leave her be for an hour or so. She should basically have no room to do anything but contemplate shells. How long has she been naked?

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I'm going to put my advice within the following quote. I just had this post almost written and lost it on Tapatalk :( Curiouser and curiouser: I kept peeking in the tank during the last hour, and Naughty (the potential aggressor) has partially reemerged. During the class, I could see him tunneling, ...

Fortunately, I've never seen torches or pitchforks around these parts ;) Although I do understand your concern because of behavior I have seen on other animal forums. I use both silk plants and plastic in mine and have noticed no ill effects. I feel like if the crabs had a problem with them, they wo...

aAs long as you have plenty of substrate and feed a variety of protein and calcium, everything should be okay. Even though they went down in the same spot, they probably switched directions under the surface. Do you know what species you have? You might want to fill out the emergency template, just ...

When the crabs are super small, it's hard to tell what is poop! Also, they can hold it in their shell for quite some time before dumping it. I noticed that my crabs dump their poo more often now that they are more acclimated to the tank. Or at least I think they do. Just scoop out what you can and m...

That is a super interesting way to make decor! Thanks for the inspiration and your tank looks great

I think it depends on the specific location. Some of them have ok conditions while others are terrible, but it is a very small minority that actually has good conditions. I personally do not buy from pet stores however and encourage others to adopt. I found all of my crabs on Craigslist or on here (...

I'm not familiar with any way a shell could have changed shape, but as far as the crack goes, there is nothing you can do about it until he comes up on his own, really. Unfortunately, that other site gave you incorrect information about going digging for a crab. Even if he did not stock up on water,...