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Naked hermit crabs then died. Please help!!!

Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2024 3:48 pm
by I<3mycrabbies
I have had four small purple pinchers in my tank. I currently have a 20 but I'm looking for a much bigger tank and I'm trying to convince my parents to let me get one. They are all rescues from Facebook market place and from a friend. And I have had hermit crabs for about three ish years.

The tank temp is 71°F and around 88% for the humidity (they are more active with a higher humidity). I have a substrate of play sand and eco earth that is three times deeper then my biggest crab. I feed them a mix of food from hermit grub, fresh fruits and veggies, a dried fruit mix, and a protein mix. They have fresh water and salt water pools. They also have loads of hiding places. I have three coconuts for them a couple hammocks and a bunch on different climbing levels and vines for them.


Last night I had found one of them half buried in the sand and when we took a closer look it was out of its shell too. We did dig him up cause he wasn't moving at all and he had sadly passed. Then today I came home from school and I found another crab naked. (This one had been a little big for its shell but I've had a hard time looking for shells that were the same shape and the right size for him.) We don't know if it's alive or dead yet but it's still in the pool we found it in (the fresh water one) and it hasn't moved at all (this happened about about 30 minutes ago) and we took another shell that he's gone into before but changed back out of and put it next to him. I have no idea what to do at this point and please let me know if there's anything I can do to save this poor little guy. (The other crabs haven't gone near him at all)

Re: Naked hermit crabs then died. Please help!!!

Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2024 11:11 pm
by JoeHermits
See our naked crab guide: viewtopic.php?t=122302

It has procedures for reshelling naked hermies as well as places to look for potential stressors that can cause them to streak


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Re: Naked hermit crabs then died. Please help!!!

Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2024 12:23 am
by curlysister
Your tank is too cold. It should be around 80F, to allow for dips in temp during the day or night. What do you use for a heat source?

You need to get the crab out of the water, and follow the instructions on the care sheet that JoeHermits posted asap.

Re: Naked hermit crabs then died. Please help!!!

Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2024 7:52 am
by I<3mycrabbies
When we found him again he had passed he wasnt going into another shell and we left him over night but the tank smelt awful this morning :(

and I use a UTH for my tank I haven't been able to go out and get another one yet.

Re: Naked hermit crabs then died. Please help!!!

Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2024 10:38 pm
by curlysister
I<3mycrabbies wrote:
Sat Feb 24, 2024 7:52 am
When we found him again he had passed he wasnt going into another shell and we left him over night but the tank smelt awful this morning :(

and I use a UTH for my tank I haven't been able to go out and get another one yet.
Do you have your tank insulated? What do you use for a lid?