HCA: Hermit Crab Association

My PP Bingo hasn't come up since early December (2 months and 22 days). He was the biggest hermit crab in the large section and the employee said he was a "Big Guy." And, he had a part of a limb to regrow. So, I expected him to take at least a month and a half, probably 2 months. But time ticked away and it has been almost 3 months. I have been very patient and never bothered him or anything like that, but i am getting kinda worried. The tank doesn't smell like a dead hermit, but im still worried. Does anybody have any tips or words of wisdom?

I had my hermie not even the size of a golfball take over two months- don’t worry! Bigger crabs can take much longer, up to a year in some cases.


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Agree, no need to worry yet.

My bigger crabs have stayed under for a year or more.

Just an update, Bingo is still molting. So, it has been nearly 4 months.

Or maybe he came up for a few minutes when you weren't looking and went back down. It happens sometimes.

Definitely happens...I had 2 crabs that did that and had I not happen to catch them on the night vision camera, I wouldn’t have known and would’ve thought they’d been under for many months!


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Update on bingo: he is still down there, as I know of

I am so feeling your worry... Eugene has only been down going on 2 months and it's eating at me.. not sure what i'd be doing in your shoes.

But no smell is a good sign! DO you have a night cam? Just in case?

HermieBingo wrote:Update on bingo: he is still down there, as I know of

Do you have any other crabs in with him? I had a small crab that was down for 6 months (no sight of her on the cam or marks in the sand). I asked if it would be ok to dig for her on here since she was the only one left in the small tank (I was transferring everyone to the 55 gal). The consensus was that it would be (sadly she had passed). If Bingo is the only one, I would think it would be ok to dig after this many months. If he's not the only one though, I wouldn't.
Recently, my largest crab had been down for 10-11 weeks. I happen to get up at 4am and check on the tank...and there he was in the greensand dish. That was Oct 2. I haven't seen him since then. Had I not caught him that morning, I would have thought he has been under for at least 4 months. Fingers crossed for you.

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Jlmills525 wrote: ↑

Wed Nov 03, 2021 7:42 pm

I am so feeling your worry... Eugene has only been down going on 2 months and it's eating at me.. not sure what i'd be doing in your shoes.

But no smell is a good sign! DO you have a night cam? Just in case?

It's pretty hard to be extremely patient, by not digging him up. I couldn't stand a jumbo that molts for even more than a year!
I am thinking that the reason he's taking soo long, besides the fact that he is a large crab, is that he needed to regrow a claw since the people at the reptile store I rescued them from had put too many hermit crabs in tanks with not good conditions. But by far not the WORSE conditions if seen in pet stores.

No I don't, but I might get one.

Hello everyone,
I have waited since December 16th, 2020, with no trace of Bingo. I am considering him as passed away, at this point. R.I.P. Bingo.
I am investigating his death in hopes of the utmost care for my other hermit crab, Charlotte.

Here are my tank conditions if anyone wishes to know:
20 gallon long
6-8 inches of sub: coco fiber/sand mixture
constant humidity of 70%ish
constant temp of 75-85 degrees
8+ turbo shells at all times (rotated through every so often with other turbo shells)
1/2 gallon saltwater and freshwater pools
1 large hideout (sometimes I put another in the tank)
I always provide fresh fruit, veggie, ground safe nuts, occasional meat or egg mixture.

Notes:
- I do not handle my crabs or remove them from the tank
- The tank is in a room with little to no traffic
- I continue to learn and research hermit crabs and read this forum to gain as much knowledge possible to properly care for these creatures.


The next step from here is to evaluate if I wish to adopt another crab to accompany charlotte. If any of you have any questions or advice, please respond

Awe that's too bad. I too would think after 24+ months the crab has passed.

Looks like you've done all the right things in terms of care.

Even if they're active the day you buy them, it's hard to predict what condition they're actually in. You have to figure it's usually poor.

If you want to continue in the hobby, if you're not able to adopt, I'd go with captive bread. Not cheap, but IMO, worth it.

Other than the LHCOs there may soon be another avenue for captive bred. The Crab Central station has recently been able to successfully breed in captivity. They has a live stream over the weekend where they indicated they may be selling the babies but didn’t have full details yet


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^ I saw most of that live stream. I think Darcy said they had maybe 50 captive breads? Cute little buggers.