HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I adopted 1-year old female equadorian about a month ago, she was eating normally for awhile, then she just stopped! I haven't changed anything in their diet, but I still can't figure out what would cause her to stop. Recently she started staying in her shell and being very sluggish.. what do I do???

Hi, sorry to hear your having troubles with your little E, I'll see if I can help sort this out.

I'll need to get some more info from you to get started.

What size and type enclosure do you have her in?
What has the diet you've been feeding been?
What type and depth of substrate are you using?
Is the substrate moistened to sandcastle consistency?
Are you offering both fresh and salt water?
What are the temp and humidity readings if any?

She's currently in a 20 gallon (long) tank, along with 3 other hermits.. I give them fruits, veggies, eggs, nuts, and oats everyday..
The substrate is coconut fiber mixed with sand, its about 6 inches deep.
The temp of the tank is 81 degrees.. the humidity level is about 80.
I have a fresh water and salt water pool in the tank
and I mist the substrate daily

Your setup sounds great so I don't see any environmental issues that could be the cause.

Hermit crabs are biologically hardwired to avoid foods that they have smelled or eaten for up to forty-eight hours after which is why feeding the same foods every day is actually not the best idea so we tend to recommend alternating foods out if not every day then every other day so they always have something different to keep their appetites stimulated.

I've had hermit crabs since I was seven years old and in all that time I have never noticed food missing from the dish in one night because they eat very little very slowly due to the fact that they have such small guts which is why it tends to be tough to tell if they have eaten anything especially when they are small though the larger they get the easier it gets to see how much they have consumed.

Sluggishness can be caused by the build up of the molt inducing hormone needed to prompt the crab into molting and is one of the key signs to look out for in crabs who are approaching a molt phase.

Loss of appetite is another key indicator as is a massive gain in appetite but which you will see is often predicated upon the individual crab as each has their own individual personality and needs.

Your substrate depth could be just a tad deeper but I don't think going from six inches to seven is going to make a huge difference unless the crab in question happens to be over the size of a fifty cent coin then you'd ideally need around eight inches of depth to allow for proper molting and burrowing activity.

Has the crab in question done any digging recently as an increase in this activity right before a molt is often associated with the pre-molt phase.

Being that you've already had her one month you've already passed the four week isolation period and really shouldn't be seeing any signs of latent PPS or post purchase stress unless the crab came from very poor conditions then we might be looking at PPS as being the culprit though I'm leaning towards pre-molt at the moment.

I would try to give her some raw or organic honey in a bottle cap and some mushed bananas as these are easy to digest high energy foods that will help her to recover her lost energy.
The honey is also a natural anti-bacterial and anti-microbial agent and has been noted in helping hermit crabs who were afflicted with certain infections.

She's about one inch in length,( she's the smallest hermit I've ever owned!) But, anyways yes, she digs burrows all the time.. but don't hermit crabs tend to eat a lot before they molt?

Some will have huge appetites just before a molt while others will suddenly loose theirs, we do know that the crab has to eat enough to produce the nutrient stores necessary to facilitate being underground for upwards of two weeks which accounts for the increase in appetite but we still dont clearly understand the loss of appetite thats also seen in pre-molt crabs.

Alright, I'll try your suggestions, thank you so much!

You don't have too change a crabs food that often! Crabs have been studied in the wild and they are scavengers and often prefer older 'food' to fresh 'food'. They've been seen eating molded food. Feel free to fill out the emergency template stickied in the emergency section!

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Ok, thank you! Cloudy (the female eq) just accepted some organic applesauce mixed with raw honey

KayedeeLove<3 wrote:You don't have too change a crabs food that often! Crabs have been studied in the wild and they are scavengers and often prefer older 'food' to fresh 'food'. They've been seen eating molded food. Feel free to fill out the emergency template stickied in the emergency section!

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Its actually well documented in wild populations that they actively ignore previously eaten foods for up to two days as this ensures that they get adequate nutrition which wouldn't be possible if they ate the same thing for multiple days in a row.

They do require some rot to keep their digestive enzymes functioning but the small sizes of our enclosures dont facilitate letting food rot and sit for more than twelve hours unlike the miles of wild habitat they call home because the reduction in space often to twenty gallons actually focuses the pollution generated from the rot and effectively compounds the effects to unhealthy levels.

Crabber85 wrote:

KayedeeLove<3 wrote:You don't have too change a crabs food that often! Crabs have been studied in the wild and they are scavengers and often prefer older 'food' to fresh 'food'. They've been seen eating molded food. Feel free to fill out the emergency template stickied in the emergency section!

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Its actually well documented in wild populations that they actively ignore previously eaten foods for up to two days as this ensures that they get adequate nutrition which wouldn't be possible if they ate the same thing for multiple days in a row.

They do require some rot to keep their digestive enzymes functioning but the small sizes of our enclosures dont facilitate letting food rot and sit for more than twelve hours unlike the miles of wild habitat they call home because the reduction in space often to twenty gallons actually focuses the pollution generated from the rot and effectively compounds the effects to unhealthy levels.

Exactly! Well said

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Crabber85 wrote: Its actually well documented in wild populations that they actively ignore previously eaten foods for up to two days as this ensures that they get adequate nutrition which wouldn't be possible if they ate the same thing for multiple days in a row.

They do require some rot to keep their digestive enzymes functioning but the small sizes of our enclosures dont facilitate letting food rot and sit for more than twelve hours unlike the miles of wild habitat they call home because the reduction in space often to twenty gallons actually focuses the pollution generated from the rot and effectively compounds the effects to unhealthy levels.

Are you referencing Thacker's 1994 paper on avoidace of previosly eaten foods, or are there other papers that I don't have yet? (I'm collecting the literature on Coenobita right now, because I'm new to crabbing... but I like to get hard core when it comes to the animals I keep!... i'm up to nearly 50 articles - but there are a lot more. This is my Pokemon )