HCA: Hermit Crab Association

What is everyone’s experiences with hermit crabs from Petsmart. It is the only store in my area, and I want to what everyone’s general experience with them is.

Our local PetSmart sucks in their hermit crab care. They’ve even tried to sell me a dead crab!! I was so horrified I got in touch with their corporate!!


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I got Peanut from Petsmart, and while the conditions weren't the best, I've seen far worse. Peanut has seemed healthy and we'll have had him for 2 months on the 23rd. I think he's gone down for his first molt with us. Every Petsmart is different, though. You could also look into adopting, rather than buying.

If you want to try adopting, look at craigslist (you can create a standing notification that'll email you if the words "hermit crab" show up), offer up, the HCA adoption board (if you're in TX or CA there are likely a lot of options), and there are a number of Facebook crab groups that list adoptable crabs. Also, you can place a local adopter add in our adoption section - I've had two crabs come to me that way in yhe last year, and four on Kijiji (a Canadian Craigslist type place).

Each store is so different in their level of care that you really need to visit, observe and ask questions. There are also a lot of unknowns in their delivery and things can go wrong before they get to the store sometimes. It is always a gamble when getting a new crab from any source though. The employees should be honest if you ask how many deaths people experience, and they have a guarantee on their animals.

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I have a lot of pet stores in my area: petsmart, pet land, petsupermarket, and petco. I have had the most luck with petco, as they seem to provide better conditions from what I've seen. I got my two newest crabs, Kai and Tai there, and they adjusted very well from their previous conditions. Comparing petsmart with other stores, I've noticed that they tend to have poorest conditions out of the other stores in my area, but obviously I cannot speak for all petsmarts or petstores- so you might have luck depending on their conditions.


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elisabeth_r26 wrote:What is everyone’s experiences with hermit crabs from Petsmart. It is the only store in my area, and I want to what everyone’s general experience with them is.

I have 6 total and 4 have been from Petsmart. The latest just a couple days ago. I contemplated Petco, because all their crabs are in painted shells, which is awful, but the conditions were a bit better than Petsmart. So I figured I would get him from Petsmart. But as others have said. There are no guarantees no matter where you get them from.

I just got both of my hermit crabs from Petco because they were both in painted shells and I wanted to rescue them from being abused by people who didn't know how to take care of them. I have a male named Kaladin and a female named Shallan. I got them both in November and both of them changed shells pretty much as soon as I got them home. Kaladin has molted but Shallan is currently trying to decide if she wants to molt or not. She will go under for a few days to a week and then I will catch her sneaking up for food in the morning sometimes so I have stopped getting her out to allow her to decide if she wants to do her thing and molt. I am hoping she does soon so that I can stop worrying about PPS. She changed her shell in front of me the other day and her molt sac is humongous so I know that she should be going down soon. Anyway, I prefer to get mine from pet stores not to support their business as much as to rescue the poor critters from painted shells and bad conditions. These are my two crabbies! The first, darker one is Shallan and the lighter one is Kaladin.

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If never had a problem with my local petsmart. Alot of the employees are at least somewhat knowledgeable about them. The tank is kept at a good temperature and humidity. The depth of the substrate is simply not enough though. If always gotten active crabs that transition Well!


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Ankutchey wrote:If never had a problem with my local petsmart. Alot of the employees are at least somewhat knowledgeable about them. The tank is kept at a good temperature and humidity. The depth of the substrate is simply not enough though. If always gotten active crabs that transition Well!


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The reason the sub is kept low in stores is that the stores want to be able to sell the crabs - and find them to do so. It would actually be worse for the crabs if they were to begin a moult in what seemed like safe conditions, only to be dug up at this delicate time by someone looking for a saleable animal.

Not to mention how many hungry and shell-crazed hermits arrive on a weekly basis. A store is not a safe place for a molt unless the owners and employees are on the same page about leaving them be and allowing new crabs time to adjust.

Before I knew too much about crabs I got mine from my previous local Petsmart. Not the best care but those crabs are all doing well over 2 years later.

Hi! Pet store worker popping in to say that we aren't allowed to use very much not only for sale purposes, but also ease of cleaning. I try to leave about an inch towards the back so they can bury if the humidity runs dry, or for them to destress. Once a week we have to take everything out and disinfect it, so having enough sub for them to molt would be pretty dangerous.

Unfortunately, all of the habitats the pets are in are highly regulated and super specific specs that you're not allowed to change(no matter how much you beg or ask lol). While it is for the pets safety most of the time, it can get a little frustrating.

I hope I cleared some things up.

I've been to two PetSmarts recently, and neither of them have had any crabs. They have the spaces, but nothing was in them. One of them I go to often because it's near the school I teach at, and it's been many months without any hermit crabs in sight.

We got both of ours from the local petsmart, and the conditions were pretty much the same as everywhere else ive seen (low sub, etc) but weve had them for about two years now and both have molted several times and have been pretty active the entire time! i suppose it really depends on the location and even just taking a chance with a new crab
good luck!