HCA: Hermit Crab Association

She won't ship them without contacting you. Both times I ordered the order was "finalized" between she and I including shipping dates. What did you order? Only the Indonesian order was due in about 2 weeks ago. She keeps them a few weeks to de-stress and then she'll start shipping in the order she received the orders. The first time I ordered was the first of August and I didn't get the crabs until late November. I know she gets flooded with emails and is super busy when the crabs come in, sometimes it takes her a long time to reply. Fingers crossed that means she's crazy busy dealing with crabs!


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Just to give some peace of mind - Below is a email I rcvd.


Hi, as I don't have your order in front of me and I'm responding to tons of emails for status on emails, please see below regarding current status on our stock.. Thank you for your patience!

We have most of the crabs in stock, some have been delayed by our supplier but should be coming in soon. As well, we are waiting for clearance from US customs to be able to ship the crabs we received from overseas. We are not permitted to ship them without clearance. I apologize for the delay. I can assure you it is worth the wait

mom23 wrote:She won't ship them without contacting you. Both times I ordered the order was "finalized" between she and I including shipping dates. What did you order? Only the Indonesian order was due in about 2 weeks ago. She keeps them a few weeks to de-stress and then she'll start shipping in the order she received the orders. The first time I ordered was the first of August and I didn't get the crabs until late November. I know she gets flooded with emails and is super busy when the crabs come in, sometimes it takes her a long time to reply. Fingers crossed that means she's crazy busy dealing with crabs!


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Can you imagine what that place must look like

Crabs everywhere!!!! She did tell me the crabs that have come in are a great bunch.


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Phaha- when I got her email I just sat there and thought, hundreds of crabs everywhere, climbing the curtains and furniture just craziness!

Honestly, I think it would be so cool to experience the import and all the different crabs.

It would be cool, but it's obviously not the easiest job. lol.


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Strangely if you look up her info online, she appears to be possibly doing it out of a house actually.

This sounds to me like it's the Aussies that are still MIA

mom23 wrote:She won't ship them without contacting you. Both times I ordered the order was "finalized" between she and I including shipping dates. What did you order? Only the Indonesian order was due in about 2 weeks ago. She keeps them a few weeks to de-stress and then she'll start shipping in the order she received the orders. The first time I ordered was the first of August and I didn't get the crabs until late November. I know she gets flooded with emails and is super busy when the crabs come in, sometimes it takes her a long time to reply. Fingers crossed that means she's crazy busy dealing with crabs!


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I ordered 2 ruggies and 2 violas. That's good that she lets you know before shipping them. And yes, she must have a lot of mouths to feed!

FloridaSun wrote:Just to give some peace of mind - Below is a email I rcvd.


Hi, as I don't have your order in front of me and I'm responding to tons of emails for status on emails, please see below regarding current status on our stock.. Thank you for your patience!

We have most of the crabs in stock, some have been delayed by our supplier but should be coming in soon. As well, we are waiting for clearance from US customs to be able to ship the crabs we received from overseas. We are not permitted to ship them without clearance. I apologize for the delay. I can assure you it is worth the wait

I have been thinking about this & to be honest, I am suspicious now.

As well, we are waiting for clearance from US customs to be able to ship the crabs we received from overseas. We are not permitted to ship them without clearance.

Maybe I am wrong (I will be researching), but it's my understanding that Customs controls what is sent into & out of the US; NOT what is already in the country & sent interstate; once it's in the US it is in. Now, if someone has some knowledge on this; I'd love to know but this sounds like an excuse for the delay or that she may not even have the crabs at all.

As for the Aussies....I have seen his (Merv Cooper; the exporter) application for & approval of export permit, but.....I can't find anything saying he IS actually allowed to export native Australian species like c. variabilis. I know he has before but I am wondering if maybe he really wasn't allowed to and still isn't. This will mean not only that she (LHC) has a bunch of money to refund but a lot of people (myself included; I set up a 55 gal with 8:1 sub, etc JUST for them) will be REALLY disappointed

HARAWLINS wrote:Maybe I am wrong (I will be researching), but it's my understanding that Customs controls what is sent into & out of the US; NOT what is already in the country & sent interstate; once it's in the US it is in. Now, if someone has some knowledge on this; I'd love to know but this sounds like an excuse for the delay or that she may not even have the crabs at all.

You are right. U.S. Customs will quarantine or permit import wildlife. It's one or the other. Working with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, they are generally looking for threatened/ endangered/ injurious species. If the crabbies are in the states, then the U.S. Post Office allows shipping of non-injurious cold-blooded animals at anytime. See 526.6 in regulations below.
https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail ... nformation

http://pe.usps.gov/text/pub52/pub52c5_007.htm#ep184096

neverland wrote: You are right. U.S. Customs will quarantine or permit import wildlife. It's one or the other. Working with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, they are generally looking for threatened/ endangered/ injurious species. If the crabbies are in the states, then the U.S. Post Office allows shipping of non-injurious cold-blooded animals at anytime. See 526.6 in regulations below.
https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/detail ... nformation

http://pe.usps.gov/text/pub52/pub52c5_007.htm#ep184096

Yeah, that's what I thought I was doing some looking yesterday and the only thing I can find even remotely pertaining to this set of circumstances is that she may have to obtain a certain permit to import crustaceans but even that would need to be garnered BEFORE they came into the US and from what I can see there is no quarantine procedure or requirement for hermit crabs. I'd LIKE to give her the benefit of the doubt and say she mis-spoke (typed) but... this is all looking very suspect

I got the same response from her about the clearance of shipping the crabs in the states, I was told all crabs were in but aussies and a few of the Indonesian species (some came in but not all) such as the straws etc. I was a little confused as well about this to tell you the truth. Never heard of these issues before once she got a majority of the crabs in previous times. I just hope they ship soon, I am about to upgrade to a 90 gallon and all my crabs are up in my (2) 50 gallons and I was hoping to transfer my crabs to the 90 and iso the new one's in the 50's. It's not a huge deal but I though they would be shipping already this week or the next since I ordered like before everyone else did..lol (Found out in January she would get all the new species in and have checked the site daily since)

Anyway if anyone hears something new keep us all posted!

What did everyone order??? (To kill the time)

I ordered just blues this time around

CrabbyJ wrote:
What did everyone order??? (To kill the time)

I ordered just blues this time around

I ordered 3 Rugs

Cool! I ordered 2 ruggs last year and they are doing great!

What size and colors did you get?