HCA: Hermit Crab Association

So, this is one of our newer hermies, Chime. He buried himself in our 2.5 gallon spare tank we had. This was before I realized that the minimum size for Iso would be a 5 g, so forgive me! He has been buried for a little over 3 weeks. My daughter and I have occasionally moved the tank to see if we could spot him and never saw anything until tonight!
Wondering why the large pincher is so white?!?! Is that the exo or him?! We gently put the tank back and put a towel over it as usual just to keep it nice and dark. Heat stays around 80 and humidity fluxes between 74 at lowest to 92. I know that's a huge flux. It has a non hinged glass top so I am constantly readjusting the top to keep the humidity as steady as possible. I haven't smelled anything fishy.

The big pincher just looks sooooo pale. Is it exo or possibly dead??

It looks like exo, but I'm fairly new as well so I can't be 100%. Maybe someone that's been a crabbie parent longer than myself might weigh in?


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Watch it to see if it moves at all. It looks like a newly formed claw to me, as pale as it is. I would probably dig because it looks like the cave collapsed. Others might not but from the photo it doesn't look like there is a cave any more.

Don't see claw there this morning. Does that mean he moved or should i try to dig like u recommended?? Not sure what to do

Ok, couldn't wait. Went into panic mode and went ahead and dug up Chime. Found a healthy, post molt crabbie with hard shell, brushed his big pincher and it opened up wide! Also found a small part of his exo leg tip and looks like he also started to eat some of the big pincher exo!!


Here is a pic of him right after I dug him up. I misted him a little with FW, dug a little pit for him, placed him and his leftover exo parts next to him. Is there anything else I needed to do? Had to run out after that. His new big pincher seemed nice and firm and was a reddish purple color (I need an emoji for a huge face of relief!! Lol!)
Also wondering how soon I can put him
In the main tank? Maybe wait a few more days to see if he finishes off his exo? I
Put new bowl of FW and a clamshell full of dried krill and shrimp in his little tank before I left - he has a 2.5 g tank so want to move him ASAP into our 20 g main tank. Thanks!!

I haven't figured out how to attach multiple pictures to the posts so forgive me since I am technologically incompetent Here is a pic of the leftover exo parts I found.

Very cool! Glad all has gone well to this point!!!


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Giner13 wrote:Very cool! Glad all has gone well to this point!!!


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Thanks Giner13!! Can't describe how relieved I was to find the little booger alive and well!! I'm pretty sure I have grown a new batch of grey hairs on my head after this morning! Thanks again for HCA's support!!! Don't know what I have done if Chime had died. We just buried Zinnia not too long ago - died most likely from PPS- so another one dying would break my heart even more! Here's to Chime for pulling through on his first molt

I'm still waiting for mine haha he's been down almost 3 weeks now!!


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Good luck Giner13!! Hope ur little guy or girl pulls through healthy and happy

Kermie16 wrote:Good luck Giner13!! Hope ur little guy or girl pulls through healthy and happy

Thanks Kermieif so it'll be my first successful molt encounter!!

Never dig up a crab!! It's pure luck that he was far enough along that he should recover okay from this, but do not disturb him in any way on his next molt. They don't bounce back from stressors during consecutive molts and if he gets disturbed by you or another crab it could easily kill him the next time. Especially since he's new, you're not out of the woods with PPS now, it's going to take at least another molt to know for sure, possibly two. This cannot be considered a normal healthy successful molt and it may have set him back in his adjustment to captivity.

I wish I would have caught this topic sooner! I'm sorry. There was nothing wrong in the first photo. Crabs molt up against the glass all the time and it looks freaky as heck. It's normal! What you were seeing was a freshly molted claw.

wodesorel wrote:Never dig up a crab!! It's pure luck that he was far enough along that he should recover okay from this, but do not disturb him in any way on his next molt. They don't bounce back from stressors during consecutive molts and if he gets disturbed by you or another crab it could easily kill him the next time. Especially since he's new, you're not out of the woods with PPS now, it's going to take at least another molt to know for sure, possibly two. This cannot be considered a normal healthy successful molt and it may have set him back in his adjustment to captivity.

I wish I would have caught this topic sooner! I'm sorry. There was nothing wrong in the first photo. Crabs molt up against the glass all the time and it looks freaky as heck. It's normal! What you were seeing was a freshly molted claw.

Oh noooooooo!!!!! It was not intentional to harm him in any way It was a moment of panic. Didn't know their tunnels could collapse and I didn't want him to suffocate. OMG. I feel sooooooo guilty right now. He is in a 2.5 g tank which just adds to the guilt. This was the only tank I had available for Iso when we first got him and when I first thought all new hermies needed to be in iso for molting. This just adds on to the guilt!!!

i have to leave on a trip in about a week. My critter sitter is willing to help feed the crabs and mist the tanks as needed but unwilling to touch them. So here is my question. All of my PP's r small-medium sized. Each r buried - 1 in 20 g main tank (went down to molt about 3 weeks ago), 1 in 10 g - recently surfaced from her molt a few days ago and has been eating like a champ, and 1 in the 2.5 g who also went down for molt 3 weeks ago - the one I dug up yesterday in a state of panic. I would like to ideally move the one in the 10 g (recently surfaced) to the 20 g (3 weeks into molt) and move the guy from the 2.5 g (also 3 weeks into molt and ate most of exo) into the 10 g. When would be the best time to do this?? The 2.5 g has the most difficult time with humidity so putting him into the 10g or even putting all of them together in the 20g main tank would be optimal for stable humidity. Please help!! Don't want to screw up any more hermies or potentially cause harm.