HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Aaahhh... I never thought that it might be a fungus! Thank you! It's a relief to know that it's harmless to my critters, but I'm still going to get rid of it. I don't have the allergies to worry about, but it's the principle of the thing: I'm not having anything growing in there without my permissio...

I recently noticed this against the glass on the side of my crabitat. I've kept an eye on it, and it does appear to be slowly getting bigger, so I suspect that something funny is going on in there. There are other spots of the same substance around the perimeter, but the highest concentration is her...

I bought a small food dehydrator today in the hopes that drying food for my crabs will keep me from having to throw so much out--with only two crabs, pretty much any fresh food goes bad before they can get through all of it. I was looking through the instructions, and it said to blanch any food item...

Update: One of the two crabs came back up earlier in the week, and he's just as active as always. I know now that the crab who made the window (the one who's still down) is the older of the two, and while I did cover the glass after my original post, I took a brief peek just to satisfy my curiosity....

I have two crabs, and both of them have been down for the last couple of weeks. This is the first time that they've been under simultaneously, which makes watching the crabitat a bit boring for me, but they've each molted several times under my care, so I know the routine. What's piqued my curiosity...

My crabs happen to be those who like to dig just for the sake of digging. Conditions are ideal, but they'll go down, tunnel around for a couple of hours, and then come right back up. In the process, of course, the displaced substrate ends up burying spare shells, food dishes, etc., and I end up with...

I only use the HCA as a source of information....I decided there are many sources out there, and by only using one consistently, I avoided the conflicting advice out there. I've ended up doing that without really realizing that I was doing it. When I was first starting out and doing my initial batc...

If you were around for my first posts here last month, you might remember that on August 18th, I got a second crab as a pal for my first, who had been a loner for better than a year and a half. On August 24th, the new guy buried himself for his first molt under my care. Last night (September 22 as I...

Please don't move the tank with any buried crabs. You can collapse tunnels and caves and they can suffocate. I have no plans to move the enclosure, partly because it's in a good spot already and partly because of the reason that you specified. This is that particular crab's first molt under my care...

It's like their all conspiring in a crab cult......

It's quite possible. Check your back yard for Cthulhu, just in case.

I live in an area where a heat source for my crabitat isn't particularly necessary during the summer, but with autumn fast approaching and the nights and early mornings getting colder by the week, I've ordered an Ultratherm that's set to arrive within the next few days. Between the way that my crabs...

If you decide to offer popcorn, just be sure that it's absolutely plain--no butter, salt, etc. Organic, as always, is preferable, but it's most important that you don't offer something like microwave popcorn or leftovers that you bring home from the movie theater. I have an air popper that I use whe...

Popcorn is a perennial favorite among mine, though that's an occasional treat that I offer maybe twice a month or so, tops. Hard-boiled egg was a massive hit the last time that I offered it, but that doesn't really qualify for a long shelf life. As far as that goes, the dried papaya that I recently ...

I'd been meaning to get a few extra shells for my crabs. In terms of numbers, I had enough in the 'tat to meet the suggested minimum per crab, but there were a couple that no one ever seemed to touch, and my new guy is small enough that while I had shells that were adequate for him, it was worth get...

It's been a few days since I introduced the newbie, and I wanted to give a quick update. As far as I can tell, Johnny is acclimating remarkably well. He changed shells within twenty-four hours of being added to the crabitat, and he seems content with his choice. He's a very inquisitive little crab; ...