HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I have a new crab friend. He was stressed out for a few days and would not come out of his shell. I left out honey and fruit and he has come out. I noticed yesterday he is missing an eye! It looks like a yellow scab or something has formed over where the eye would have been. It is broken off and totally flat. Will he be able to grow back his eye? Will it be a problem for him? Do I need to do anything special to make his life better? I might be too worried but I do not want to make anything worse.

It might grow back over several molts. Hard to say for sure but either way he should be just fine and live a normal crabby life. Can you share a pic?

That makes me feel better. It almost looks like the people who painted him (I named him Ol' One Eye) got paint on his eye or something and it fell off. I have pictures and am in the process of figuring out how to get them up. I found some info on how to do this.

The eye stalk is still mostly there from what I can see so I think this increases the chances he'll regrow it. But like I said, if he doesn't he still can be a happy healthy crabbie.

His antennas seem to be moving very well from what I can tell, and CallaLily is right about his eye stalk being mostly there. I had a crab who was missing an eye as well, though he was also a bit sick, and didn't make it. But I had noticed that he had a similar thing, and after some time the eye had begun to grow back. I think it's kind of like a gel limb kind of thing, that he may be just slowly forming a new eye


My four hermies ~ Hulk, Biscotti, Sampson, and Double D <3

Yep, sometimes they can regenerate them, other times they can't. It's a very complex structure and even if it has been regrown we don't know if it will function the same way the old one did. I've had several crabs with eye issues over the years. When the entire eye stalk was present they were able to regenerate it within about a half-dozen molts. One-Eye actually regrew the "eyeball" on a stalk that was half as long as normal! He's a jumbo though and has only molted three times with me. The others were all much smaller and molting every 4-8 months so it was easier for them.