HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi all,

I adopted a crab from Facebook in June and he went down to molt in mid-July. He's still down and he's a pretty big guy so I'm expecting a longer molt time and I'm not worried (yet). My question is, is it safe for him for me to adopt another crab while he's down? I don't think he dug down very deep, there's a kind of 'hump' in the sand where I believe he is, and I wouldnt want another crab to harm him during his molt. I'd hope it's been long enough where he's consumed his exoskeleton already but I can't be sure. Thoughts?

I just adopted two new hermies, and my second of my two residents just went down a couple days prior to molt. Neither of my two new ones have dug under (to my knowledge), however, I feel there is enough room with 8 inches of substrate in my 55 gallon tank I was not worried. IMO, as long as there is enough molting room for everyone and proper tank size with deep/wide enough substrat to hermit crab population there is much less of a worry. I definitely made sure there were multiple protein sources available when my adoptees came home, so they would have it instead of feeling they needed to get it in other ways, like searching for a crab to eat.

So I guess, what size tank do you have? How deep the substrate? How big are your current crabs? Do you have multiple protein sources to offer? And congrats on the adoptees!

I have a 75 gallon tall hexagonal tank with ~7 inches of substrate, a moss pit platform, sizable salt and fresh water pools, climbable netting, and I’m adding stuff all the time. My crab is a medium-large PP, so I think there should be plenty of space, and I’ll definitely provide an abundance of protein to try and dissuade that whole situation. Thanks!

As long they have a variety diet, they’ll be good!