Bought Hermit crabs for my daughter and one was molting

[babyhermitcrab]

Hi we have had hermit crabs before years ago. We had to give them up when we moved over an hour away from where we were. Since the hermit crabs had belonged to my daughter (she was 5 at the time), I told her she had to wait until she was a teen. Which brings us to the current situation.

We found a 10 gallon with 3 hermit crabs for sale, they told me after I agreed to buy that 1 was molting. I still agreed and we brought them home. Since we did not move with molting hermit crabs I did not think about it but I did look it up last night and this morning. And it looks like we need to dig this crab up. Makes me a little nervous.

So since there are others in the tank I would need to remove them, set up an isolation dish to put back in the tank, and be slow and patient about finding this crab, then resetting up the tank (adding in eco earth and moss (they only had play sand and it humidity has been hard to keep up). Is there anything else I should do?

[Jlmills525]

To be clear... the tank is still at the original owner's home and you need to dig him up to move it?

IF so, how far away are they? IF they aren't too far, it may be possible to move the tank intact?

We need some more info to properly advise.

[JoeHermits]

If the substrate is deep enough (triple the tallest crab’s height) than there’s no need to dig it up. Considering you already brought it home you won’t accomplish anything unless the molter is in immediate danger.


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[babyhermitcrab]

It had been at the previous owners home and it had deep enough substrate. We moved a water dish on the top layer and found the hermit crab with a partial shed and sand glued to it. My daughter did not believe it was dead and insisted we put it in a container to protect it. She is 14, done lots of research, but also autistic and not always willing to know when something has turned badly. After seeing how badly crusted it was (you could barely see the crab through the sand), after she went to bed I put it in a warm bath to get the sand loosened and it was sadly as I suspected, deceased. Now we only have the two hermit crabs. It looked like it had molted and started back up before it died. It was in complete condition so the other crabs had not gotten to it. I don’t know why it died.


Tomorrow we pick up a 40 gallon from a friend and will prep it with eco earth, sand and moss before moving them to their larger home. Hopefully with better substrate we will keep the 2 we have for a long time healthy and happy.

[wodesorel]

I'm so sorry you've experienced a loss so early.

We're they using the right kind of substrate, and was the sand moistened? Usually crusting occurs when the enclosure is too dry. Molting has to occur in moistened conditions or they end up drying out quickly, and because they come out of their old skin sticky wet, dry substrate will stick to them and cause deformities or death.

[babyhermitcrab]

It is only play sand, and that is a guess. It doesn’t look like calcium sand but it really sticks to the crabs. Their water dishes were to small and other than really nice hides and non painted shells everything else in the tank looked like it came from the store as a basic set up.

The sand was on the dryer side when I got it. It is really probably 2 wet right now as we have struggled since yesterday to keep the humidity up. We bought a fogged today and that worked. I did not want to move the crabs to redo the substrate when I would have to do it again tomorrow.