HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hello! I have been caring for crabs for about a year now. Each time I get new crabs, they last about 6 months. After my first two, I drastically changed and improved the conditions of my crabitat. I have 6+ inches of play sand and ecoearth, 2 water dishes, food, shells, humidity, all the things I've researched for. I absolutely love having crabs as pets but I feel as if I may not be equipped to care for them. Please help me figure out why they don't last!

Have any of your crabs molted when you had them?

I know for sure the one who just passed molted and my other one is currently molting. I believe the other crabs might have molted as well but I don’t know for sure

Where are you getting them from? it's possible they were just unable to recover from conditions before you got them

If you enjoy keeping them and have your hardware, supplies and setup all sorted and stable, it's all easy from there! Well mostly.. LOL

Tell us more. What type of marine salt mix and dechlorinator are you using? Are you using a digital temp / humidity gauge and maintaining close to the 80F and 80% range?

What type of foods are you feeding.

lydia15 wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 31, 2021 11:41 am

I know for sure the one who just passed molted and my other one is currently molting. I believe the other crabs might have molted as well but I don’t know for sure

Unfortunately, crabs often go through so much before we get them, that they just can't recover and survive - even if we have perfect conditions. They are susceptible to what is termed 'post purchase syndrome' until at least their first molt after we get them.
If you would like some help critiquing your care, you could copy and paste the 'emergency template' so we can see what your conditions are like.

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