HCA: Hermit Crab Association

So yesterday I noticed that my fresh water dish had somehow cracked and had leaked a lot of water into the tank, (2.5 g) and I know that it slushed the bottom of the tank, so as a worried mother I decided to pull out the crabs and make sure no one was stuck, or suffocating. When doing this I dug up a crab who was naked, and molting, lucky he was already eating his exo, and wasn't a pink blob, but had already started to harden. So I carefully picked him up and put him aside in a little container. I had to get everyone else out and make sure everyone was ok, which they were, but the tank bottom was soaked. I had to just mix the crap out of the substrate and added some dry coco fiber, and sand to get the sub consistently right. I took the time to reset the tank completely, fixed where they had tore things up and buried things. Once that was all done I put the crabs back in the tank. I took the naked molting crab and dipped him into some fresh water to clean his bottom, then gently assisted him into a proper fitting shell. I put him and his exo plus some minerals and crushed eggshell into my smaller tank, he is still in the container I had him in. He is contained by himself right now, I kinda thought I should keep him in the container until he eats his exo then put him back into his tank. He is still alive today, I peaked at him and saw him eating more of his exo, and he is still in the shell I placed him in. I haven't had a naked crab in a long time and never dug up a nakedmolting crab before. I have read other forums where similar things have happened, so I hope I handled this properly. Any advice on how long I should keep him separate or special things I should do would be great. This crab is a large crab, and is an adoptee I recieved over the winter, so his first molt with me is not going great. If the experienced crabbers can shed some light on if I'm doing this right I would appreciate it very much.

Sounds like you've got this.

Keep him ISO'd in proper conditions until he finishes his exo (all he needs at the moment) and is active and eating normally again. In the mean time, if you haven't already, carefully place a hide over him. When he's ready, don't forget to give him a dunk in the freshwater pool before placing him back in the main tank.

Your tank is 2.5gal or is that your pool? I had one of those crack and I lost about 1/3 of it in the tank. Luckily the sand absorbed it and it spread out. Yay for deep substrate. The EE made a big difference in absorbing to extra water.

The pool was a 2.5, I had recently switched tanks so the sub was already freshly moistened anyways so it didn't absorbed a lot, and it was more then half of the water I would say at least a gallon and a half, it's a 75 g with 2 2.5 gallon pools, they were full so yeah it slushed the bottom. I have sand near the water area for a beach theme, and the other 3/4 of the sub Is ee and sand mixed, so the sand is what got the most of it. And that's where the molted was in, but he was just above where it was the wettest. Anyways he is still eating his exo, and he has a half coconut over him. I put him in my small tank, ( the tank where I keep my tiny, and small crabs) so the conditions are good, the 80/80 temp and hum the container he is in is pretty tall so the other crabs shouldn't be able to get into it since they are very small, plus the coconut fits right over the top. I will make sure to bath him before returning him to his normal tank. Thank you for the reassurance. I thought I was doing a good job but I didn't want to be full of myself. I love this community, crabbers are great

Have you caught any of yours swimming? I am wondering if one of my fatties fell in and broke the one I had leak.

Seems like you have it covered! Just remember to bathe him/her in some salt water before you put him back in with his/her buddies, sucks that your pool leaked!

Yes some of the crabs like to get in and soak, I was kinda thinking it might have been that. I have 2 jumbos, and I feel like maybe one of them lost their grip or something and hit the side. Not sure though, it was a long line down one side, so it seems like that's a plausible explanation. Never had glass crack from crabs hittin it though, and trust me there are times when the crabs have hit the glass hard, banging against it so loud I thought for sure it had caused damage to the tank or there shells haha. I dunno I had glass crack similar to that with a beta tank, it was a pure mystery on how it occurred. I had no children then, no pets that could have hit it, and it was while my apartment was empty and I was at work. When I came home the 5.5 g tank my beta was in was almost empty from water seeping out. So I dunno, both of these tanks were bought from previous owners, not brand new. Maybe the glass had taken some stress prior.

Mine just did it....ugh gotta get in the tank today...jerks

Gotta love the destruction these littles guys can do.

How do you have the water tank supported? Is it on a flat piece of thick material, so the rim is evenly supported the entire way around the bottom with no upward pressure against the glass? That glass is thin, and it's not make to support the weight of the water unevenly. If it's not being supported properly, then it can give way anywhere at any time!

At the bottom I have two sheets of plexi glass stack on top of each other, then the tank on top of that. My sub is lower on the water side, and higher on the opposite side of the tank. So it's bottom of the crabitat, two layers of plexi glass, then the 2.5 gallon. Not sure if that's good enough, I did the plexi glass cause I didn't want the water pools right on the glass of the tank, The water seems to set evenly in the pools though, well I know the salt water still sits evenly, but the fresh water appeared to set even too. Idk, I'm down sizing the pools though. I thought about during plexiglass and silicone in the tank to make the pools permanent in the tank, but not I worry about that.

So he is still alive, and almost finished munching his exo. I will update again when he is done eating that and getting ready to move back to his normal tank, after a quick bath of course. So happy he seems to be doing good.

Awesome news

Ok he finished his exo, started eating some nuts I gave him, so I bathed him last night and put him back into his normal tank, he went straight for the anchovies then to the worm castings. He seems to be doing just fine, he was active in the tank eating and moving about. Haven't noticed any issues but will keep an eye on him.

Yay, your hermit crab is alright.