HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I bought 3 jumbos last year around December 8-15 . one has passed one . the other is just fine the other one seems to be sick . he hasn't molted since I had him iam guessing last time he molted in nature his legs were starting the thin . I say this because his outer walking legs are Like a smaller crab's walking leg size . he doesn't move much I move him once a day to the fresh water bowl since and thn put him back in his spot he moves the the salt water dish a sits there. When I got him he was in a way to big shell the shell itself was heavier than my tablet . back then I helped move him same as I do today. I got him to change shells by setting his shell upright and put a shell in front of his after days of doing this he finally switched into a lighter shell I even tried to hand feed him with honey and grinded shrimp he ate some and then ran away can somebody tell me what to do if this helps I am going to go to a reptile expo next Saturday can I pick up at thing there or look out for something I'll do anything to help my baby :crybaby:

I've read a couple things on here that has stated that jumbos that have been bought or recently taken from the wild do not transition well into captivity like smaller scale crabs do. If your crab needs to molt there isn't anything you can do to make him do it. Just provide lots of protein and calcium options In its diet. I am personally a hands of crab keeper. I rarely handle the crabs. I handle them when I have to clean the tank really well. Or if there is some sort of emergency with the crab. I' feel it stresses the crabs to have weird hands come down on them and move them. If your crab is extremely weak and can't get to its food and its water then helping it along is okay, but if the crab is able to do it on its own, I would just let the crab do its thing. I don't know your set- up conditions, so I can't point anything that sends off a red flag or anything. Trying filling out the help template and someone might be able to help out more. http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... 27&t=46102

I have 7" of eco earth
I have a zoomed hermit crab humidity and thermometer daul gauge
Uth on the sides and 75 watt heat lamp and for night 75 watt night time bulb
I have fresh and saltwater I use prime dechlorinater I use instant ocean salt water mix 1\2 club of salt to one gallon of water
Fresh safe foods all organic fmr treat and sun dried shrimp replaced every other day
I had him for at leat a month he hasn't molted he is a pp
He is in a 55 gallon screen lid with towels
22 crabs with him 1 jumbo 3 large 10 small 3 tiny 9 mediums I will try to upgrade asap
2 extra shells per crab
No fumes or chemicals near the tank recently
I clean the tank when needed take items out use water and replace
No sponges r used
Nothing new added

Sorry if I sound abrupt, but trying to get this info posted quickly:

22 crabs in a 55g is overcrowded. 7" substrate is not nearly deep enough for a jumbo to dig under and molt, and with that many crabs in that size tank, there's not enough room to feel safe to do so. (Others have already mentioned the problems inherent with any jumbo brought into captivity from the wild, so I won't repeat that here, except to say that these will only be made worse by any problematic conditions, including the overcrowding.)

I know that some would disagree with me, but personally I feel bad that two of our crabs are jumbos (not wild-caught jumbos, grown to this size in captivity) and they have to live in a 90g. Remember that these animals are used to traveling for miles every night; even if your tank was the size of your whole room, it would still be a tiny, tiny box to them.

The large number of crabs you have increases the stress; although they live in large groups in the wild, when you bring wild animals into captivity you have to keep them in far smaller numbers because compression into a smaller space causes crowding, which can cause a whole cascade of biological and psychological harms to the animals.

Some long-term crabbers have healthy colonies of 20 or 30 (or more) crabs--in very large crabitats, with very deep substrate, and generally with crabs that come in smaller and grow up in that colony--but personally I would not recommend keeping more than three to five crabs TOTAL, for the average crab-keeper, and certainly not unless one has been crabbing for a number of years and gotten a good deal of experience and knowledge under one's belt. Limiting your numbers to three to five minimizes crowding problems, as well as allowing for a reasonable commitment to care (and keeping expenses down; a single jumbo shell can run you $12, and there's no guarantee they'll like that one, so you need at least three extra per crab; should all your crabs reach jumbo size eventually, that's $1056, just for shells!). While a single crab alone might be "lonely" (although we don't know for sure whether that is actually true; we assume that it probably is); all they probably need is one or a couple of "buddies." The longest-lived crabs in captivity were Carol Ormes' PAIR of crabs; they clearly were happy and healthy for over 30 years with just the two of them. So, more is not necessarily "merrier," for captive crabs.

Of course, now that you have this large number, the question becomes what to do with them. If there is any way to quickly set up alternate accommodations for the jumbos, I would definitely do that--with at least 12 inches of substrate (preferably closer to 18") and enough "floor space" so that they could each have their own private "digs" for molting. Any crab that is already unresponsive should be isolated, either in its own individual iso tank or by sectioning off areas of a larger iso tank. I agree with the previous poster that the less you handle the crabs, the better; you are a predator as far as they are concerned and handling is stressful; once you get them isolated, leave them alone as much as possible. Even these measures may not help, since they may simply be too old to make a successful adjustment to captivity, as others have already said, but it might help. A large plastic storage container can be set up as a deep-substrate iso fairly easily, although keeping proper temp can be trickier.

You mention you are hoping to upgrade to a larger tank "soon," but I would suggest you consider breaking up the rest of the colony into multiple tanks, as well. Depending on the size of the crabs, you might be able to keep up to 10 at a time in a 55g (actually the 3 tinies and 10 smalls would probably all be fine in there together for a while, but I'd want another at least 55g for the 9 mediums, who frankly could be larges very quickly in good conditions, and at least a 90g for your 3 larges and 2 jumbos and no more in there); and that's all with planning ahead for larger tanks for each "sub-colony" in the future as they continue to grow. If you prefer a mix of crabs of different sizes in each tank (which can be good to help prevent shell-related aggression), I'd shoot for no more than 6 to 8 crabs per tank, and again, the jumbos (assuming they survive) ought to be in at least a 90g, with very deep substrate.

Alternatively, if keeping up with three large set-ups is more than you want to take on, you might think about "spreading the love" among your friends who might be interested, to get your population down to a more manageable number.

Thanks for caring enough to try to do whatever you can to help them to survive. Best wishes!

I do agree that 22 crabs in a 55 g is a little crowded with the size of your crabs. I have multiple tanks, and my crabs are kept by size in the tanks. Jumbos and large are in the 125, all my es and some med pps in the 75, med and a couple small in the 55, and small and tiny crabs in the 29. I will be adjusting my tanks and bringing in another larger tank ( just moved into a new house and need to go through my storage with a collection of large tanks.) The sub in your tank does need to be deeper for your jumbos. 18 is ideal for them. The dual gauges tend to not be accurate, and seem to " quit working" or stop sometimes. A digital duel gauge for your house works great, they are fairly priced at wal mart. What does your humidity and temp run in your tanks? Seeing as how you already have 22 crabs, I would suggest either a very large upgrade, or splitting tanks. Like a 75g for your biggest crabs, and keeping the rest in your 55g. I have a lot of crabs due to taking in a lot of adoptions, over crowding is one of the worst things because it seems that at a certain point crabs will just start dying off until the tank is no longer crowded. I don't know where the link is but there is a suggested gallon ratio per crab size. I have found that allowing each crab around that ratio does help a lot. Which is also why my crabs are tanked by size. building a second level also creates more " surface space". Allowing crabs more places to go. So like shower caddies around the tank a couple inches up from the sub will give crabs more places to go.

Having multiple levels is great, and does help to alleviate the stress of crowding somewhat, but I believe the key is really substrate volume. Each crab needs to be able to have enough room in the substrate to have privacy and safety while molting. This means 1) both sufficient depth of substrate and a big enough "footprint" of the tank so that the crabs can find their own space for a molting burrow; and 2) having a small enough number of other crabs in the tank to reduce the likelihood of other crabs digging down and finding the burrow while the crab is vulnerable. With 22 crabs in the tank, the chances of not being disturbed while molting are vanishingly small.

The crabs seem to know when it isn't safe for them to molt, and they will delay molting--but they can only do this for so long before it kills them. This may explain the pattern of lots of crabs in a tank, everybody seems "healthy and active" (because they don't go down to molt, because they know it wouldn't be safe), and then "suddenly a bunch of crabs die for no apparent reason" (possibly because they needed to molt, but couldn't), until the crowding is alleviated--once the numbers are down enough for them to feel safe to molt, the survivors are then able to do so. It does seem kinder to prevent this kind of set-up for a mass die-off by limiting numbers to begin with.

Remember that these are animals taken from their wild homes, where they have whole islands to wander around on and dig deep, safe, private burrows to molt in. While you might see a bunch all together in the wild, coming together at a particular resource, they have the freedom there to go away from the group when they need to. I'm not sure what it is about crabs that seems to encourage people to want to "collect them all," but it's important to remember that more really is not better, in captivity.