HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I REALLY don't want to go digging, but Roux has been down since at least November 13th, and I last saw him in a cave, through the glass, on November 25th. He was the first one to go down, and now all of my crabs have gone down and molted, including BFG(my largest, who is a large). Roux is a medium sized crab; I’d say about 2 inches in diameter.

Since all of my other crabs are back on the surface I really want to look for him now, but I was thinking that I should wait to see if he comes up by the 13th of next month, so it’s at least been 4 months…..what do you guys think?

I also possibly have a trouble-maker on my hands. After Spider, my E, finished molting he kept going back down to play in the sand, and when he came up a while ago, he had a decent sized piece of his shell broken off...I suspect that he was looking for trouble and came across BFG, and the broken shell was a result of BFG defending him/herself, because I think if BFG was the one 'looking for trouble', my poor Spider would have been a goner...he is at least 3-4 times smaller than BFG…

Here is Spider’s old shell with the piece missing…

So...I just had a terrible feeling by the time I got home today, and I had crabs digging around again, so I decided to just dig in the area that Roux went down in...what a terrible sight My poor little Roux had been attacked, ripped to pieces...I'm feeling so sick right now, and can't imagine who could be responsible. I think what was his abdomen was well rotted, so I'm doubting it was recent. v.v R.I.P. Little guy.

Sorry for your loss


Mommy of 10 PP babies:
Poseidon (Sid), Toby, Matty, Junior, Aries, Kaylee, Turbo, Adrian, Pepper and Flower. RIP Octavius & Fred

I'm very sorry for your loss.

I'm very sorry about little Roux

Thank you everyone, I'm trying not to think of it as it was a horrible night; I will spare you all of the details. At least now I can add more substrate to that part of the tank so that it doesn't happen to anyone else; I was hoping that he would have left that area, as clearly it was too low for safety...

Oh no poor Roux.

I'm so sorry Rebecca C on the other hand hopefully Spider's shell was the result of some E remodeling, as they like to alter their shells. Wishing you some good crabby vibes!


Crabbers unite!!!

YYWW wrote:I'm so sorry Rebecca C on the other hand hopefully Spider's shell was the result of some E remodeling, as they like to alter their shells. Wishing you some good crabby vibes!


Crabbers unite!!!

Thank you, I appreciate all of you for your kind words.

I personally don't think it was a case of Spider remodeling his shell for two reasons...1, where it was broken was a terrible spot for him to have opened it up, and 2, the size of the missing piece is about the same size as BFG's BP. But either way if he did go down to make trouble, he will have a much harder time doing so with all of the additional inches of sand.

I am so sorry for your loss but this brings up a strange question. If a crab passes away under the sand, is there any way to know? Or does the death small get covered up by being under several inches of sand?

In other words if a molter "never" comes up should anything be done, or do you assume it is dead, or is there any way to know?

Sorry to ask this in the midst of your loss but I was thinking you might be able to shed some light on this odd question.

Rebecca C wrote: Thank you, I appreciate all of you for your kind words.

I personally don't think it was a case of Spider remodeling his shell for two reasons...1, where it was broken was a terrible spot for him to have opened it up, and 2, the size of the missing piece is about the same size as BFG's BP. But either way if he did go down to make trouble, he will have a much harder time doing so with all of the additional inches of sand.

It does look more like BP pinching, when i think about it. Eggshell halves that got pinched off has that look. So sorry


Crabbers unite!!!

thermidor wrote:I am so sorry for your loss but this brings up a strange question. If a crab passes away under the sand, is there any way to know? Or does the death small get covered up by being under several inches of sand?

In other words if a molter "never" comes up should anything be done, or do you assume it is dead, or is there any way to know?

Sorry to ask this in the midst of your loss but I was thinking you might be able to shed some light on this odd question.

Thank you Thermidor, and no need to apologize for asking; that is a great question with a very complicated answer, I'm afraid. In my case, I did not smell anything bad until I got to the area of his resting place. I don't think there is really a way to know if a crab is dead under the surface if you have the right depth of substrate in your tank. Although sometimes you can smell the awful death smell without digging, that is not always the case, especially if you have nice, deep substrate.

If you want my opinion on crabs molting and worrying about them being dead or not, I will say this as somewhat of a rule of thumb that I choose to go by, especially now.

If you have the desired conditions for your crabitat and you have crabs, no matter how large, go down to molt, there is no need to do anything except for maintain the proper conditions of the tank, and do not think about going digging/looking for them until they have not come up and 4 months** has passed. I would not advise digging to look for them before 4 months of them being down. If they are molting and you interrupt their process, you face killing them from the disturbance. If your crab has passed on from a struggle with the process or even from an attack, there is nothing you could have done, and them being in the sand dead, will not harm your other crabs.

It is also a good idea to keep some sort of journal or something on each of your crabs if you are able. I'm sure you would find it helpful to know about how long each of your crabs usually stays down for, but mind you, their molting times are likely to increase in time as they grow larger. I wouldn't go looking for one if it has been one month and that is when they usually come up; I would still give it at least a few weeks.

Now with all that said, there may be times where digging them up may be necessary, like in the case of your tank flooding. If you have a situation where you are unsure, you are always welcome and encouraged to ask as many questions as you would like.

I'd keep that in mind and decide for yourself; as others say, trust your instincts.

**I personally like to go by the 4 months time frame, because even the larger crabs have a somewhat 'average' molting time frame much less than 4 months, and while each crab is different, I think 4 month or longer molting times are less common.

YYWW wrote: It does look more like BP pinching, when i think about it. Eggshell halves that got pinched off has that look. So sorry


Crabbers unite!!!

It's okay, I just never want to experience finding another crab in the same way that I found Roux; it was a terrible sight to see and I keep picturing what he must have gone through.

I've taken classes that dealt with crime scene investigation and that only reminded me of some of the stuff I've seen in those classes, only on a slightly different scale...

I have a jack russell terrier that came in from the backyard one night with blood on her, and i asked my husband to go investigate. He returned with news that an injured hare had gotten through the fence, and Brownie had found it and was, under my assumption, trying to tear it up. I was so mortified by that idea that i couldn't look at her right for a week. Brutality in any form is a revolting scene. I also cannot stand the thought. May you never witness such things again.


Crabbers unite!!!

Rebecca C wrote:
It's okay, I just never want to experience finding another crab in the same way that I found Roux; it was a terrible sight to see and I keep picturing what he must have gone through.

I've taken classes that dealt with crime scene investigation and that only reminded me of some of the stuff I've seen in those classes, only on a slightly different scale...

I completely understand. I used to be a cop when I was healthy and even after that the 2 most disturbing things I have ever seen were hermit crab related.