HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I have one Caribbean hermit crab. This crab is a rescue from my brother who stopped taking care of it. It is probably around six years old and has been in my care for about 1 1/2 years. It previously did not have adequate conditions and care with my brother, so I'm curious as to how I am doing with it now. What am I doing right? Wrong?



Crabitat conditions are as follows:
10-gallon tank
6 inches of eco earth substrate
77 degrees Fahrenheit
90% humidity
freshwater pool deep enough to nearly submerge

saltwater pool deep enough to half-way submerge

five turbo-shells are provided at all times about the same size or a little larger than the crab's shell (two appear to be polished)
I alternate between a few different foods over the course of three days:

You will properly just need to change the food ( food care sheets should be on here and will tell you all you need to know ), deeper water dishes and higher the temp just a bit. Other then that you have great conditions.


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Your water pools should be deep enough for him to fully submerge.

1) More places to climb upward.

2) Deeper pools.

3) Don’t use stress coat as that is for fish. Use straight mix for saltwater instead.

4) Hermit crabs are social animals so you need at least 2 more.

5) Temp and humidity should be 80 degrees and 80 humidity for PPs.

Well there has been cases of hermit crabs living for a very long time by them selves but they prefer to be with each other


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Stress coat is fine and safe to use.

Imo, I'd just focus on slightly deeper pools and giving him a little more variety such as food scraps from your meals or small offcuts of fruit/veg.

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aussieJJDude wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 11, 2020 10:06 pm

Stress coat is fine and safe to use.

Imo, I'd just focus on slightly deeper pools and giving him a little more variety such as food scraps from your meals or small offcuts of fruit/veg.

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Stress coat is not fine. I remember a few folks saying that it can clog up their gills.

Thank you guys for the suggestions! I think I'll get a deeper saltwater bowl and some Prime water conditioner by Seachem just to be safe. I'll also feed more fresh foods as well. I'm not going to purchase any more hermit crabs because as I said, this one is simply a rescue and I don't want to have more of them after this one passes.
Does anyone know where I can buy oak or maple leaves and bark?? I heard PPs enjoy them and I want to try them out.

HermitofHermitCrabs wrote: Stress coat is not fine. I remember a few folks saying that it can clog up their gills.

Simply not true, and this misinformation can be highly damaging in the crabbing community. The stress coat additive really does nothing to gills of crabs - and fish - and simply used as a mean for fish to increase production of mucus. Crabs don't utilise a slime coating - thats the exoskeleton job - so this additive is simply wasted on the crabs.


Multiple members use API stress coat as a dechlorinator for multiple years without issues.

While prime is commonly reccomended, there's multiple different brands you can use - API, Fritz, seachem, fluval ect. Referring to our own guide, we mention some alternatives other than prime thats great and safe to use - including API.

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aussieJJDude wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 11, 2020 11:38 pm

Simply not true, and this misinformation can be highly damaging in the crabbing community. The stress coat additive really does nothing to gills of crabs - and fish - and simply used as a mean for fish to increase production of mucus. Crabs don't utilise a slime coating - thats the exoskeleton job - so this additive is simply wasted on the crabs.


Multiple members use API stress coat as a dechlorinator for multiple years without issues.

While prime is commonly reccomended, there's multiple different brands you can use - API, Fritz, seachem, fluval ect. Referring to our own guide, we mention some alternatives other than prime thats great and safe to use - including API.

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I just can't agree with you on the stress coat. It's not something the crabs need so why give it to them.

Dechlorinator is pointless since it's also not needed. Everyone who has hermit crabs should be using spring water for both their fresh and saltwater. Spring water is exactly what crabs would find in the wild.

HermitofHermitCrabs wrote:I just can't agree with you on the stress coat. It's not something the crabs need so why give it to them.

Dechlorinator is pointless since it's also not needed. Everyone who has hermit crabs should be using spring water for both their fresh and saltwater.

Many water conditioners add in some variant of 'stress coat'. I think prime does similar. Great for fish, but does nothing for the crabs. If its not something they need, and it doesn't harm them, there's no harm in providing it. Its just more a waste of product or not using it to the full advantage.

Dechlorinator still should be offered using spring water. Many still contain high amounts of heavy metals, and many brands also add chlorine/chloramine to the bottle to keep the water fresh. (How it doesn't develop algae!?) So yes, even with spring water, you need dechlorinator.

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jhuntl24 wrote:Thank you guys for the suggestions! I think I'll get a deeper saltwater bowl and some Prime water conditioner by Seachem just to be safe. I'll also feed more fresh foods as well. I'm not going to purchase any more hermit crabs because as I said, this one is simply a rescue and I don't want to have more of them after this one passes.
Does anyone know where I can buy oak or maple leaves and bark?? I heard PPs enjoy them and I want to try them out.

I heard many esty seller sell oak leaves/bark. I'd have a good hunt on that. Otherwise, you could try sourcing your own if your local council doesn't spray for mosquitos.

Have a good look at the following link here:

https://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/p ... 2&t=119315

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aussieJJDude wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 12, 2020 12:22 am

Many water conditioners add in some variant of 'stress coat'. I think prime does similar. Great for fish, but does nothing for the crabs. If its not something they need, and it doesn't harm them, there's no harm in providing it. Its just more a waste of product or not using it to the full advantage.

Dechlorinator still should be offered using spring water. Many still contain high amounts of heavy metals, and many brands also add chlorine/chloramine to the bottle to keep the water fresh. (How it doesn't develop algae!?) So yes, even with spring water, you need dechlorinator.

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I guess we will agree to disagree on both points. Crabs don’t need stress coat and they drink spring water in the wild. Putting chemicals in their water is not necessarily a good thing.

HermitofHermitCrabs wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 12, 2020 12:42 am

I guess we will agree to disagree on both points. Crabs don’t need stress coat and they drink spring water in the wild. Putting chemicals in their water is not necessarily a good thing.

There is no legal meaning to the term spring water, and most companies who sell water labelled as such are simply bottling tap water which contains chlorine or chloramines. True untreated well water is safe to use as-is, but anything coming from a bottle is unnatural and likely has chemicals added, so should be treated with a dechlor product to be safe.

HermitofHermitCrabs wrote: I guess we will agree to disagree on both points. Crabs don’t need stress coat and they drink spring water in the wild. Putting chemicals in their water is not necessarily a good thing.

I never said they needed stress coat, rather it does no harm if it is provided. There's a small distinction between the two, and its important to keep in mind that chemicals are naturally present in all water sources unless you're using pure distilled water (like milliQ) or RNAse-free water. Spring contains chemicals, as does tap. It's important to know what the chemicals are.

Likewise, in the wild, its likely for them to consume rain, ocean or ground water in comparison to spring water. Spring water is a little uncommon, and in most cases many hermies live in areas devoid of running water (for example, strawberries live on islands on the Great Barrier Reef that has no natural rivers, or Aussies living in areas with no running rivers for miles!) and commonly drink from dew, rain or other similar methods.

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