Age?

[NeWbE123]

How can I tell how old my crab is? How long can they live? I have a fairly large pp named Vincent and I was curious of his age. He doesn't move much and is fairly slow. He's also really really dark in color while my smaller pp is lighter in color. Any help?


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[LadyJinglyJones]

Heya!
So, in the wild it's thought they can live well over 50 years.

In captivity, the oldest known captive crab is Jonathan Livingston Crab (you can google him) who has been in captivity for 40 years.

This is pretty darn uncommon!! They don't do super well in captivity - but if you end up with a relatively healthy crab & keep it in good conditions, it is possible to get 10 years, and sometimes more from them... there are several members on here who've had crabs a decade or so - I hope they'll chime in.

Colour is influenced by many factors, including diet & horomones, and who-knows what else.

It is true that crabs seem to darken as they age (I've seen older PPs that are almost black) but this can happen in smaller crabs too. You get the occasional bigger crab who is super pale, too.

Captive crabs tend not to grow as large as their wild counterparts. Size can give us a vague idea of age, but isn't reliable... nutrition, genetics, dominance & resource access may all play a part in size.

It's likely that most of the crabs we get in stores are at least 5-10 years old.

Hermits start off reeeeal small. Kind of mid-size spider-sized, really. People are gradually having more success breeding them, and in a few years we'll have a better idea of how long it takes them to reach the 'small', 'medium', and 'large' sizes. Look up the breeding threads on here to see how adorably teensy they are when they first crawl up on land - and how little their shells are... [explanation devolves into high pitched cooing and baby talk...]

Anyway, for now, the answer to your question is... guess.

Luckily, crabs won't notice if you put the wrong number of candles on their birthday cake.... I don't think they're very good at counting!

Edit - being slow may be a sign of getting g ready to moult. It can also result from lower temperatures. Or just being a lazy-bones.

[wodesorel]

They are also extremely variable in their growth rates when young, and we don't know yet if that continues through the years or if at some point they end up catching up with one another. It could very well be that some small and large crabs are siblings from the same brood, going by the extremes breeders are seeing in the first few years of life.

Diet and ability to molt often are other factors - which is why the small crabs I rescued three years ago are larges but someone else who got small crabs at the same time and kept them according to pet store advice will still be smalls.

I adjusted my mental calculations after seeing how captive bred ones grow, but for me

Tiniest tiny ever 5 years
Tinys 8-10
Smalls 10-12
Mediums 10 to 15
Larges 12 to 18
Extra larges 15 to 20
Jumbos 20+

Just watching how mine have grown over the last 8 years, they shoot through those middle sizes at variable but breakneck speed. You can have a crab go from small to extra large in 5 years.

[NeWbE123]

Well I can Assure you that Vincent isn't getting ready to molt as he just came up from one. Also. He's in the middle of a medium and a large. So this helped a lot. Vincent just sits in his little coconut hut and doesn't move. Anyways, Vincent (large crabbie) is a deep deep red color but still has the purple pincher. While mischievous is a light sand color! I'm fairly new as a crab mommy so this all helped me a lot! Thanks!


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