HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hello. Recently my smallest crab Sammie has come up from her first tank molt.She's about 5 - 10 years old, I believe. I've had her for almost two months and I'm a bit concerned for her and her health. She's been up for about three to four days and she seems to get more lethargic each day that passes. I've put her in ISO away from the other two because I fear they might attack her. She's been digging, but only a little bit on the surface to where you can still see her shell. I've had to move her a few times because the thing she hides under would get knocked over on top of her, and I'm a bit of a neat freak. She's had a painted shell since I got her and I have encouraged her to change with the large variety of shells perfect for her size, however; she has yet to do so. The conditions in the tank is just fine. The temperature stays around 85 during the day and a comfortable 80 and the occasional 75 at night. Humidity stays around a constant 75% to 80%, and on days I'm out, the lowest it drops to is 50%. The substrate is about 9" deep (95% ecoearth, 5% reptile sand) There are plenty of places to hide, and plenty of shells. I provide filtered water from the fridge and salt water from the pet store on a regular basis. I feed them a variety of cleaned fruits and veggies from our fridge, and commercial crab food with calcium powder. I have a feeling it could be the paint on the shell catching up to her, but I also believe it could be that she's entering another molt. It could even be the things from the fridge I've given her. I don't know. I've never had this happen before.

When you says your crab is 5 to 10 years old, who had her before you had her? Do you know what the conditions were where she was kept?

curlysister wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 19, 2020 7:23 pm

When you says your crab is 5 to 10 years old, who had her before you had her? Do you know what the conditions were where she was kept?

I had bought her from my local Petco. Conditions of the tank were not decent. Lots of overcrowding, not enough substrate, I think there was even a dead crab or two in the tank. She seemed perfectly fine. No damaged limbs and was very active. Though, I thought that she'd be in the clear after her first molt in the new tank. Is she not?