HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I’ve had my 3 bigger hermit crabs for about a year and a half now and the crab I am very worried about is Ruby. She’s a smaller crab with a shell size just under an inch and so her molts have never taken too long. They have always been between a month and two months. I have a camera that is attached to the inside of the tank with velcro and I can see the tank at a time but can’t go back. In the last week of June I was out for the day and when I came back I heard chirping so I checked out the tank. Ruby had 2 or 3 of her legs stuck to sticky side of the Velcro, the side that should have been completely against the tank. I was able to get her legs free but they were all twisted and she could have been there for up to 8 hours. Right after that she went under. She came up about 2-3 weeks later and looked whitish and then went back under. It’s 5 months since her legs got stuck and she went under and I’ve been worrying that she is dead. Do molts for crabs with messed up limbs take longer? Do they have a long growth spurt at a certain age where they take much longer? I don’t smell anything but would I if she was under? Is there anyway to tell?

I’ve never heard of an injury causing a molt to be longer, but I do know that if a crab passes away while they’re under, there isn’t really a smell. I believe I did see someone here say around the 8 month or like year-ish mark it may be worrisome enough to slowly and gently sweep some substrate aside to check, and if I remembered that right, I would think that it would be even more reasonable in your case since she usually molts so quickly. I’m so sorry all this is happening and I wish you and your crabby all the best.

Maybe someone who is a bit more well versed in this type of situation can confirm or correct me later, but I hope this helps for now!

myllkti wrote:I’ve never heard of an injury causing a molt to be longer, but I do know that if a crab passes away while they’re under, there isn’t really a smell. I believe I did see someone here say around the 8 month or like year-ish mark it may be worrisome enough to slowly and gently sweep some substrate aside to check, and if I remembered that right, I would think that it would be even more reasonable in your case since she usually molts so quickly. I’m so sorry all this is happening and I wish you and your crabby all the best.

Maybe someone who is a bit more well versed in this type of situation can confirm or correct me later, but I hope this helps for now!

Thank you, I want to check on her but I’m worried I’ll hurt her. I hope she’s okay.

Hi there,

If your other crabs are in the same tank as Ruby, you won't be able to dig for her without possibly disturbing the others. I had a crab that I waited 6 months for before I dug for her. She was the last one left in my 20 gal (the others were moved to the bigger tank as they popped up), and there were no marks in the sand either. I found microscopic bits of crab in one shell, so I knew she had passed on at some point. Had my other crabs been in with her, I never would have dug for her. If Ruby has passed, there's nothing you can do anyway, and digging would only cause more problems. Hopefully she has been coming out at night and you've just been missing her. That's a definite possibility. Please keep us updated.

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