HCA: Hermit Crab Association

So I have a 10 gallon tank with four crabs in it. As far as I can tell, 3 are purple pinchers and my most recent purchase is an ecuadorian. My two larger crabs are maybe rated as small and the other two are rated as teeny according to the sizing chart. I'm just worried my little E will be lonely and didn't know if adding one more to the tank would be too much.

Hello! Welcome to the HCA!

In my opinion, I do not recommend that you get another crab. I personally recommend 1 crab per 5 gallons, so I would say you are overcrowded. Pps can tolerate overcrowding a little more than Ecuadorians. Es need more space, in my opinion. E's I think need more like 1 crab per 10 gallons. Of course crabs do much better with species buddies, but until you are able to upgrade, I don't recommend purchasing anymore crabs. Es are more likely to dig up molters in overcrowded cages, and that would lead to disastrous endings. I recommend you upgrade asap!! You can find really reasonable used tanks on Craigslist, OfferUp, LetGo, Bookoo, etc. Search Tank, reptile, aquarium, terrarium.

What is the depth of your substrate? With E's in my opinion you should have at least 10-12 inches minimum.

Good luck!

Edit: Es also do better if you offer a variety of protein all of the time

The substrate is probably about 4 inches, it's hard to tell as everyone kicks it around a lot.

Okay, you need to try to fix that as soon as you can to avoid issues. If everyone comes up for dinner tonight, you can remove them and add it all. If you have crabs down, then you can add 1" of substrate every 24 hours. The substrate needs to be mixed with dechlorinated marine saltwater or dechlorinated freshwater to make it sandcastle consistency. Substrate can be playsand and eco earth 5:1 ratio or either or.

Care sheet: http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... 51&t=92457

OK thanks I'll have to get some more substrate tomorrow

Yw!

Well now I'm not sure if my newest crab is an E or not. My other three have characteristic purple pinchers, but my other guy is a bluish gray. He is more active however, are E's normally a blue color?

a45 wrote:Well now I'm not sure if my newest crab is an E or not. My other three have characteristic purple pinchers, but my other guy is a bluish gray. He is more active however, are E's normally a blue color?

They can be when they are younger Can you post a picture?

A picture would definitely be helpful. E's eyes are shaped more like () than PP's, which are more of a o.

He's not out and about right now but he looks about identical to this one here http://www.hermit-crabs.com/images/palee.jpg

a45 wrote:He's not out and about right now but he looks about identical to this one here http://www.hermit-crabs.com/images/palee.jpg

That picture is an ecuadorian

If you have an E, it needs a species buddy, and I personally would not recommend anything smaller than a 40 gallon tank for E's. They are known to have issues with aggression and cannibalism so it is very important to make sure they have plenty of space to dig, because they will trash your tank, and also plenty of food variety and protein options.

I have three E's in my colony and while I've never had any issues with them, they do have 12-13" of substrate and are fed all kinds of good noms from different crab food purveyors.

I have 4 purple pinchers in a 29 gal varying from teeny to medium... I like E's but they need 10-12" of sub and I've heard they will go after molters of sub isn't deep enough (on accident)

Sometimes I think I want a 5th crab but my group seems happy that they can stretch out. Honestly 4 in a 10 gallon is over crowded as is let alone adding another...

Also recall, crabs can easily double in size in a year. 5 gallons per crab is the recommendation for a Small/Medium crab. Once they get to be Large, minimum recommended space is 7 gallons per crab, and Jumbos need a minimum of a 100 gallon tank (from what i recall, help me out someone if I'm remembering wrong) because they need a wide and long tank in which to walk around a lot. There is a crab sizing chart in the care sheets. http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... 26&t=92541

Substrate is still recommended to be 6" minimum OR three times the depth of your largest crab, whichever is deeper, so once your crab is a jumbo, that's a lot more substrate depth as well. E's need a minimum of 10-12 inches (I'd recommend 12") regardless of the size of the crab, as I think was stated earlier in this thread. A ten gallon tank is only 11-12 inches tall, total. So I'd recommend upgrading ASAP in order to help preserve the lives of your PPs during molts. You can find cheap tanks on Craigslist, OfferUp, Bookoo, consignment and garage sales, etc. Petco also does a $1/gallon sale every so often.

Here's the overall care sheet link here - there's some good info specifically about PPs and Es and lots of other useful information. http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... m.php?f=51

I only have three PP crabs myself, all small or small/medium in a 29 gallon tank. They're well on their way to doubling in size this year. I'm already worried about where in my house I'm going to put a 100 gallon tank. I almost bought some Es a while back, so I did a lot of research about them.

Hi, i recently had 3 PPs in a 10 g. Almost exactly 1 yr ago this week makes a year crabbin. They were .5" openings when i got them. They almost doubled in size now. I was lucky to have had no aggression and now the 3 of them are in a 40b . Not to add to the pile on. But you should be looking for a bigger tank or tote b4 adding a species buddy.

Over crowding can lead to disaster. Please keep us posted and good luck.

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