HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I thought of that too. Also in a retail setting you'd want them up and visible to make people want them, but they were hiding and dying and in awful condition anyway, so carefully digging a crab up in a methodical way just seemed to be the lesser of 2 evils. We vary rarely had to dig any crabs up an...

Crabs are nocturnal and they should be left alone to sleep underground during the day, though with time they may be comfortable enough to sleep on the surface like some of mine do. Digging them up like that, especially when the're sleeping, is extremely stressful for them and when they're that stres...

Hills wrote: ↑

Fri May 24, 2019 10:56 pm

I like to give my crabs carrots and then look out for their orange poops! They love the carrots, and I think it's funny, so win-win.

Was just about to say this!! It's only brown if you don't give them carrots!

I'm so sorry to hear of this tragedy! It's so hard not to give in to pity purchases but it really is the right thing to do. Something we all can try, (and I admit that I had the advantage of working in a pet store with good people who trusted me when I said "here's what needs to be done for this ani...

Mine still do that after a few years sometimes. Just remember that we are absolutely huge to them and if we approach too suddenly and put our faces up to the tank they will rightly get freaked out and run away/hide. If you have a nice jungle area with lots of hiding places that can help them feel mo...

I only have a couple of them for house plants and I'm only just now ready to start adding live plants to the crab tank. Personally, I'd pot them to protect the roots from damage, and they'll likely need an fast draining cactus mix to be happy anyway. I'm not 100% sure on how deep the root systems go...

He's isolated currently but still in the main tank. I have him in a small tank with food and water and deep sand and I placed that tank without a lid inside the main tank so he still has all the heat and humidity without extra effort from me. (fortunately it fits just fine!) The iso tank has high si...

Great idea with the baby food! For this guy specifically it'll be easier to eat at this time anyway. I always save tuna for and shrimp for them when I get it, as longs as it meets crab food standards with no seasonings or anything that may be toxic but I don't eat it often. I also used to freeze chu...

I moisten the substrate with fresh water, dechlorinated of course. I just reread my post and realized I wasn't very clear, my apologies. My "deep cleaning" really only consists of scraping the top layer and then stirring the substrate when everyone is confirmed to above ground, and I only do that ma...

1. What kind of substrate is used in your tank and how deep is it? Straight play sand, 6 inches. (Planning to go back to an ee/sand mix at some point and make it deeper.) 2. Do you have gauges in the tank to measure temperature and humidity? If so, where are they located and what temperature and hu...

My crabs mostly hang out on the driftwood these days, the tank is a little bare and soon I'll be redesigning it. But a couple years ago I got a good sized lava rock and soon after putting it in 3-4 of my crabs were all sitting on it. It was quite the popular destination for a while. I'm a big fan of...

A bit late to your post, but I wanted to mention that I've gotten a few of my crabs from craiglist. It requires patience, and gas and time to meet the person to do the swap, but it's so worth it to take a crab off someone's hands who doesn't really want it and isn't taking proper care of it. If they...

Just a note about the driftwood. Mine is not mopani wood, it's the softer stuff from petsmart and I've had the same pieces in there for several years now so it'll last a long time. They definitely ate it at first but eventually they got used to it and while they do still nibble on it, I find that mi...

I saw sago palm on the unsafe/unpopular list. Is it actually toxic or will they just not eat it? I thought about adding one to the tank along with some pothos to get some live plants in there. I wanted one as a houseplant anyway so if they start destroying it I'll just remove it but I want to make s...

I thought this was really interesting. The first link is a simplified summary https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/thoughtomics/terrestrial-hermit-crabs-only-smell-their-favourite-snacks-when-water-is-around/ Here's the original paper for those interested in reading it. https://pdfs.semanticscholar....