HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi to everyone! One person wants to give me a hermit crab, but he lost his eye during the previous molting. She was on Zanzibar and took some shells, it one of the shells was a tiny little hermie. When she found it, she made evething for the good care, because she has her own hermits. She made an iso tank for him, and he immediately went for a molt. After molting he lost his eye. And now she wants to give this crab to me. My question is, how's his injury can influence on his health? As i know from keeping land crabs, loosing an eye is very bad, because in his eye stalks there are many hormones which are pesponsible for molting. So crab will die during the next few moltings. Does anyone have an experience in such cases?

i will let others chime in on this
but i did rescue four crabs about a month ago and the lady had told me one of the crabs didn’t have an eye when she got him. i never heard of such a thing happening to be honest. he did look fine though. one eye was a little bigger than the other and she had told me it started coming back after molting. he is doing just fine now.

crabs_lex wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 28, 2021 11:04 am

i will let others chime in on this
but i did rescue four crabs about a month ago and the lady had told me one of the crabs didn’t have an eye when she got him. i never heard of such a thing happening to be honest. he did look fine though. one eye was a little bigger than the other and she had told me it started coming back after molting. he is doing just fine now.

Anyway, I decide to take this crab, and will try to help him

Eyes usually grow back over time, having a missing eye doesn't affect their health at all.

Is it a land crab? Most crabs brought home in shells end up being marine crabs, they can survive a surprisingly long time out of water.

wodesorel wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 28, 2021 11:24 am

Eyes usually grow back over time, having a missing eye doesn't affect their health at all.

Is it a land crab? Most crabs brought home in shells end up being marine crabs, they can survive a surprisingly long time out of water.

I saw a photo of this crab, it's also an eyestalk damage, will it grow back?
Yes, its land hermit crab, Coenobita Scaevola

I rescued a purple pincher (Coenobita Clypeatus) from a pet store in deplorable conditions. He eye and partial stock were missing. He had to decompress and went down for around a 4-5 month molt (he’s large sized), and it has not affected his health. He is one of my most colorful hermits now! Part of the stock and a smaller eye has even grown back. I will post some pics in a bit. Just make sure yours get lots of quiet time to decompress and molt. It seems that after a traumatic experience they decompress underground for quite a while before even starting the molt.


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