HCA: Hermit Crab Association

When you guys wash your shells do you dry them before you put them back in the tank. I was my shells once a month or so I rinse off all the sand and ee and get all the poop out from the inside then I let them soak in some salt water for a bit. Then I drain the water off and try to get as much out of the shells as I can and then wipe them down with a paper towel. Does anybody else dry theirs or do you all just throw them back in the tank?

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I just put them back in.

LadyJinglyJones wrote:I just put them back in.

Ditto. The crabs seem more interested if the shells are still somewhat wet -- probably reminds them of finding wet shells on the beach.

Interesting. I am worried about the water in the shells spilling on the sub.

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Eh just make sure you aren't putting shells FULL of water in the tank, but a bit in the inner spiral likely won't even make it out of the shell.

Ok. That makes sense. I know once or twice wouldn't flood the tank but I was thinking long term.

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Oh I feel ya. I dealt with a flood from a slightly angled water that I didn't catch dish just a week ago. The bubbler was doing way more overspray than I had originally thought. It's not a fun process. Pretty gross tbh. I'm just glad I caught it early.....Now I need to buy sand/ eco-earth. My sub is only around 8-9 inches right now, and it's seriously bugging me.

Yeah when I first started, I started out with a ten gallon tank and had no clue that it had flooded till I went to empty the tank while switching to the twenty gallon. Got to the bottom and found my two missing crabs dead and it smelled horribly like rotten eggs and garbage. I do not want to go through that again.

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Haha. No doubt. It's nasty. :crybaby:

Very. The smell was worse. It stank up the whole house.

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i do a half and half actually and find of my four two dont seem to care at all. one likes dry a slight bit more and one likes wet slightly more. all i do to dry mine is put some in towel then shake and then i lay them out opening down to drip dry for a day. the wet ones i just flip opening side down and toss (obviously i dont really toss them hahah) them in. i honestly think that the tank is humid enough to make them dewy and not 100% dry after a day or so (at least my tank)

I put mine in wet and full of salt water.

mool wrote:I put mine in wet and full of salt water.

I tried that and the first crab to see they had water then just went around tipping them over one by one. So i felt a little bad she had to do all that extra work before she started checking them out.

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Just Jay wrote:

mool wrote:I put mine in wet and full of salt water.

I tried that and the first crab to see they had water then just went around tipping them over one by one. So i felt a little bad she had to do all that extra work before she started checking them out.

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Nah, they're captive animals so it's 'stimulation', not work!

I just rinse, then boil for about 5 mins, cool and rinse off with FW, shake then put back in


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