HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I have three hermies,I’ve had them for about a year. Over the last two days I have found one completely of her shell a number of times, even though there’s a few different sized shells in their tank. I’ve noticed two to be out of their shells a lot (still in the shells but not hiding) then this morning I woke up to both of them with no shell on and one in each pool, non responsive I think they’re dead.
The only thing I’ve done differently is turned off the heat mat as we’ve had a couple of 35-43 degree Celsius days here and didn’t think they’d need it through our summer. The tank is always at LEAST 68% humidity but lately in the 80’s.
I always dechlorinate their pools/baths, one is fresh water one is salt water. I do everything I can to take care of them I don’t understand what went wrong

Aw, that's horrible! I'm no crabbie expert, but it sounds like they way have gotten sick, or, if your pools are deep enough, they could've possibly drowned?

I am so sorry to hear about your crabs. A crab will drop it's shell when it is too weak to carry it.
Please fill in the Emergency template (copy and paste it, then answer the questions) so we can help trouble shoot what went wrong.

Im sure a more experienced crabber will chime in but you should have 70% minimum humidity and youre shooting for 80%. Without the high humidity theyre pretty much just suffocating. Im sorry for your loss

I would like to see the template filled out as well just to see if there's anything that could have caused it that may have been fixable. I'm so sorry though. You said you had 3 for about a year so the other is still doing well or no?

As noted, maybe it was some bacteria or pathogen that was around that the hermit crabs just have no resistance to.

I'd like to see the emergency questions as well before saying anything for sure, but the humidity levels you have described were not dangerous.

If 43C isn't a mistype, how hot did your actual tank get?? Crabs can overheat. At 30 it becomes a risk for some hermits to shell ditch, the warmer it gets, the more of a risk it becomes. They will bubble at the mouth, ditch their shells and seek water to cool down. I've had crabs be okay at 49 when my heating method broke into the full-on position, so it's really hit and miss why some are affected so severely at lower temps.

As soon as I heard it got up to 40C, I knew you were from Australia. Haha, onky Australia does it put you on a slow roast.


I'm interested as well, as it may be a temp related issue, it may be due to other factors.

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OP registered on Dec 30, and hasn't been on the site since that day. It's too bad! I wish we could help!

curlysister wrote:OP registered on Dec 30, and hasn't been on the site since that day. It's too bad! I wish we could help!

Oh. Just realised. Haha, thanks for that.


(Yeahz unlikely they going to respond)

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