HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I purchased three Equadorians from Petco about two months ago-yes, I swore no more E's, but they looked so sad and hungy I couldn't walk away...

Francesca died within the first week; I thought it was PPS since she was new from the pet store, but did notice that the spiral in her shell was broken. She was in a native shell, not a horrid painted one...

Then, about a week later, Bonnie started getting lethargic. She gave a good fight, and lasted about six weeks, but finally died last week. I took her out of her shell, and saw that her abdomen had been horribly injured...Then I looked at the shell, and saw that it too had a broken spiral...the edge was so sharp, it's no surprise she died. Bless her poor little heart, she must have suffered horribly since she lived so long with this injury.

None of the crabs would change shells, and I thought that was odd since all of my new crabs have changed shells immediately when put in the tank...before they eat, drink, or explore, they change shells.

Now, I have one surviving E from this group-Sophia. Two months later, she still has not changed shells, and has been dug under for about a month now. The tank has a funny smell, and I'm afraid she is dead too. I'm not ready to start digging as Ive got another moulter and don't want to disturb him, but I'm pretty sure.

Anyhow, this is not so much an "emergency," but more of a commentary on an "odd situation" that two out of three crabs in this group have died from broken spirals. I don't think it's Petco's fault; my Petco has been doing a very good job improving their conditions and hasn't had painted shells in several months.

Now I've just got to go figure out how to dig up this poor dead crab...

I'm very sorry for your loss

Thanks for the kind words. I know this was beyond me-these crabs were probably injured during shipping and there was nothing I could do, but I'm still sad and frustrated. I guess the shipping conditions for this particular group were extremely harsh.

Most Es have a rough time from shipping. It's either the companies that are collecting them, or they just aren't as hardy as PPs. I would have to doubt that it was the shells that were the cause of death - almost all Es come in modified shells, and they are actively modifying any new ones they put on in our tanks, it just takes a few years to do so. I am really sorry you lost two of them like that, and I hope Sophia is alright. If you're trying Es again in the future you might want to try a different store and see if they have a better survival rates - not all distributors are created equal.

Thanks, Wodesorel. I don't want to say never about the E's, but for now I'm going to focus on nurturing the ones I have rather than purchasing new crabs. I'll let you all know if I find Sophia...if I ever get brave enough to dig...

I am so sorry to hear for you're loss. All of my Es are in shells without spirals. But they modify them to there body's and no one elses. When my one E passed from a failed surface molt I thought the 2 other Es would fight over his shell but no. The other 2 tried it on the longest for nearly 10 seconds before jumping back into there shell and all 3 are about the same size. I think that for whatever reason bonnie lost her shell when she was captured and was put into another one that was the wrong size And a rough edge that didn't effect the original sh ell owner could effect another crab.

That's really interesting. My larger E's change shells constantly but haven't broken out any spirals-yet. They sure keep me on my toes!

I woke up in the middle of the night because Henry was doing a spiderman on the screen top and making all kinds of noise, and noticed a hole in the substrate and Sophia peeking out...thirty minutes later she was up on top of the substrate! I didn't look closely to see if she had moulted or not since I didn't want to shock her with the flashlight after a month in the dark, but she seems to be alive and healthy!

The smell has dissipated, so I"m hoping Didier is fine and they just dragged sardines all over the tank (again!).

E's are so silly!!!