HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hello:
So i need some help understanding my crabs some more. In august we got my daughters a hermit crab and of course i wasnt prepared but ive been researching nonstop and i just wanna go with the best solution. Recently i bought reptile sand because a store owner said it was okay in a 30gal tank and with that i had got the heat mats for the tank sides. In the process i said oh we should get the crab a friend. I set up the tank with the require water pools, activities i could afford, food etc. Well the crab we brought home from said store passed was out of its shell in 5hours on surface and looked to be molting as i had read some do if they cannot bury themselves. Well 2days later he was no longer moving and i assume died. Pry to that my original crab was acting funny. Wouldnt eat nor drink. So lastnight i went to a different store got better tank soil. Coco fiber eco earth bricks and took out the reptile sand. Made sure not to use tap water etc. I used 3bricks which have expanded to 6inches or more for the crabs seeing as i bought 3 babies this time.
About 3hours our largest crab buried himself after checking out the tank. I wake up this morning and our original crab has changed shell and gone under in the same spot as our largest one while the two littlest babies are still above surface.

Is this a bad sign? The temp in the tank is exactly at 80degrees and i added some foil as we have a metal topper just to keep them warm with a square hole for air in it for the time being.

I jus want the best for these babies. If you have any suggestions or diys yous know are good please let me know. Im worried they wont survive and i know to leave them alone when this happens as well. Any advice is helpful advice, thankyou!

One thing I want to ask- what are you feeding your crabs? What's the humidity? Water situation? This will help me be able to help you.

Pellet food that they had at the store
I do eggshells spinach watermelon once ina while
And far as water its bottled with the water conditionar and saltwater. They have been drinking just fine and eating since last night and i did pickup the calcium tabs they sell as well. The humdity is now at 80 before i didnt have a temperature gage but i do now.

Okay!
Pellets are not recommended for hermit crabs. They have little nutritional value and can contain harmful preservatives.
A crab's diet needs to consist of protein, calcium, fruits, veggies, sea veggies/aquatic leaf litter and fats.
I'd recommend looking at these resources: https://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/p ... 25&t=92554
https://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/p ... 25&t=92555
If crabs are not fed adequate protein, they can and will resort to cannibalism. I'm not saying that this is happening with your crabs, but I'd recommend changing their diet as soon as you can.
Don't attempt to dig up your crabs. Even if you did, the original crab might still try and pursue the other crab.
Here's my site, feel free to check it out- it has some crab-care tips on it. https://sites.google.com/view/thegourmetcrab/home
Make the changes recommended and let us know how it goes! Feel free to ask any specific questions, I'd love to answer them. Hope this helps!

Welcome to crabbing and to the site!
If you haven't checked out the care sheets yet, start with the 'basics' one - then go from there.

Also, you certainly don't need to buy any special foods for your crabs. If you are on a budget - or are a thrifty crabber like I am - you can feed them what you eat. They eat such small amounts, you can just give them bits of your meals - meats, veggies, nuts, seeds, eggs and egg shells, fruits, grains, etc. You can also dry your own foods if you'd rather feed dry food.

Reptile and is often calcium sand, which can get hard like cement when wet - so you were right in removing it. If you want to add some sand to your coco fiber, use play sand - it's usually less than ten dollars for a 50 pound bag.

Crabs often tunnel to a different location once they are underground, so the first crab that went down might not be in the same place anyways. The reason it is recommended to have deep substrate and not to over crowd a tank, is so that a crab who is underground isn't at risk of being dug up by other crabs who are digging around.