HCA: Hermit Crab Association

In the summer of 2019, my family and I travelled to Sunset Beach in North Carolina where I found a land hermit crab on the beach that as far as I could tell looked identical to the ones I had always seen in those crappy stores like "Wings" when I was a kid. My sisters and I decided to bring him home, and more than a year later, he still seems happy and healthy in his 20 gallon tank. I didn't think about it at the time, but I now wonder if this was even legal? Also, are land hermit crabs native to the area, or is it possible that this one was released or escaped from captivity? Either way, my main question is whether or not I should return him to the beach where I found him when we return to Sunset Beach this coming summer? If he indeed was a wild crab, would his time in captivity make him unable to survive now, or would it be better to release him back into the wild, keeping in mind that it might have been less than ethical to take him in the first place? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

It had to have been a released pet, purple pinchers are only native to far Southern Florida and the Keys. You saved its life! Even if it could have found food to survive, it wouldn't have made it through the winter that far North.

Captive crabs are also collected from outside of the country, usually from Haiti. They should never be released.

Yep, you rescued an abandoned pet for sure. The furthest north you’ll see a land hermit crab is the Florida Keys.

HermitofHermitCrabs wrote: ↑

Sun Feb 21, 2021 11:05 pm

Yep, you rescued an abandoned pet for sure. The furthest north you’ll see a land hermit crab is the Florida Keys.

There are no US range maps and no published studies, but historical data shows anything coastal South of Tampa could possibly be native for them. Probably unlikely with how much development has occurred and how often crabs are abandoned, but still a possibility.

My family has had a place at Sunset Beach, NC for almost 20 yrs...and I’ve never seen a crab there and like the others said, the fall and winter weather would have taken his precious little life. You saved him! Sad bc people might think they’re doing the right thing to release them, but just don’t know any better. Thank goodness for him that you found him!


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Well I feel so much better about the whole thing now! Thank you for the response!

Gonna add this as well:
Animals that have been kept in captivity should not be released into the wild, in part because they could now harbor unsafe bacteria and diseases. When I worked with reptiles we couldn't do it without a rigorous screening process.

Here's a great article on it
http://www.anapsid.org/release.html