HCA: Hermit Crab Association

reighleyscrew wrote:Since you've come to the emergency forum, we know you want a fast answer to your question. In order for us to figure out the problem as quickly as possible, we ask that you answer the following questions by coping and pasting this list into a New Topic. Some of them may seem odd, but they're all designed to give us the information we need to give you a good solution for your problem. Thanks!

1. What kind of substrate is used in your tank and how deep is it?
6-7 inches sand and coconut husk mix

CL77-Is it moistened to sand castle consistency using dechlor fresh or salt water?

2. Do you have gauges in the tank to measure temperature and humidity? If so, where are they located and what temperature and humidity do they usually read?
Yes 70-73 temp 80-83 humidity

CL77-You may notice decreased activity at 70°, it's a bit cold. Since she isn't feeling well, I'd try to boost the temp to at least 75°. You can put blankets or towels around the areas where the uth and heat lamps aren't to try and contain the heat.

3. Is a heat source used in the tank? If so, what? Yes daylight heat bulb and night time black light heat bulb and under tank heater placed on back right glass of tank

CL77-What is the uth brand? Zoo Med uths are known not to work very well. Ultratherm and Fluker's are good brands. Just a note, heat lamps are known to zap humidty.

4. What types of water are available (fresh or salt) and how is the water treated (what brands of dechlorinator or salt mix and what ratio is used to mix it)?
Salt and fresh
Salt water is bought for crabs from Walmart and I don’t treat it it says it’s treated and ready to use
Fresh water is distilled baby water treated with zoo med hermit crab drinking water conditioner

CL77- Unfortunately, many things marketed for hermits aren't great for them, or aren't sufficient. It's fine to use tap water with a dechlorinator. Many of us use Prime because it detoxifies heavy metals and removes chlorine and chloramine. For salt water, you need to use a marine salt like Instant Ocean.

5. What kinds of food do you feed and how often is it replaced?
Food is replaced every other day
Fresh fruit I have on hand. Tonight it’s bananas
Thrive hermit crab food medley

CL77- Variety is key. Hermits can eat many of the things we eat. You'll want to make sure you are offering lots of protein and calcium daily. Some good calcium sources are cuttlebone, calcium powder, eggshells, oyster shells, and crab/lobster exo. Pellets aren't great for hermits long term, so you'll want to phase those out.

6. How long have you had the crab and what species is it, if known?

7. Has your crab molted, and how long ago did it happen?

8. What type of housing are the crabs kept in, what size is it and what kind of lid is on the housing?

9. How many crabs are in the tank and about how large are they?
Tiny to small 4

10. How many extra shells are usually kept in the tank, if any? 10 plus

CL77- Be sure to offer shells with the preferred opening type. Purple pinchers prefer shells with round openings, like turbos. Keep 3-5 shells per crab in the tank. From your pic, she looks like a PP.

11. Have there been any fumes or chemicals near the crabitat recently?
No

12. How often do you clean the tank and how?
I do low maintenance cleaning daily

13. Are sponges used in the water dish? If so, how are they cleaned?
No

14. Has anything new been added to your crabitat recently?
Foggers to help with humidity water same as drinking water used in them

CL77- Since foggers put out a lot of moisture, be sure to check your substrate once in a while for flooding. Take a chop stick or straw down the glass on one of the sides. If water pools at the bottom, the substrate is flooded.

15. Is there any other information you would like to share that might be helpful (anything that is regularly part of your crab care, playtime, bathing, etc.)?
We lost one crab before the fogger was installed. She had recently surface molted and was pretty active and seemed healthy. Then just died. But she was super pale after her molt and never got her color back. And that is why I am concerned with this crab.

16. Please describe the emergency situation in detail.

Okay let’s start with she molted the same time one just lost did. She also surfaced molted. she is as pale as Luna was as well. She was extremely active yesterday and then she disappeared. We figured she dug. Then this morning saw her climbing in her favorite spot in a new shell. But this evening she is super pale and not responding to bananas which she loves. I haven’t seen her drink or eat this evening at all. And she is not as active as she has been the last week. Picture of her attached. Though she is tucked up in here shell in the one from today. The other one is from 2 days ago when she was playing on a plant


CL77-I would make the suggested changes I mentioned above as soon as you can (boost the temp, use a better dechlorinator, switch to a marine salt, and add more protein and lots of calcium to her diet). Try not to handle her since she isn't feeling well, that will just stress her out more.

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CrabbyLover77 wrote:I'll put my suggestions under your answers. Hope this helps!


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reighleyscrew wrote:I will put the answers to your follow up questions under your answers. Thank you for your help.


Rei -update. She was crawling around more yesterday evening and didn’t hide in her shell nearly as much. She drank some water in the soaking pool but didn’t go all the way in. But she has never liked to lol. She was in the pile of shells this morning climbing around possibly looking for a new shell. She loves to change shells. We say she likes to wear a different dress each day. She didn’t eat that I know of.

How do you know if your crabs are eating or not?? I can’t wait for the new food to come in. It should be here this week.


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Jlmills525 wrote:any meat that we eat they can eat as long as it's not heavily spiced I believe.. there are guides in the food section.. Actually the easiest way for both is hard boiled eggs... protein in the yolk and crushed shells for calcium.

reighleyscrew wrote:1. What kind of substrate is used in your tank and how deep is it?
6-7 inches sand and coconut husk mix

CL77-Is it moistened to sand castle consistency using dechlor fresh or salt water?

Rei- Yes its moistened to sand castle consistency using dechlor fresh water

2. Do you have gauges in the tank to measure temperature and humidity? If so, where are they located and what temperature and humidity do they usually read?
Yes 70-73 temp 80-83 humidity

CL77-You may notice decreased activity at 70°, it's a bit cold. Since she isn't feeling well, I'd try to boost the temp to at least 75°. You can put blankets or towels around the areas where the uth and heat lamps aren't to try and contain the heat.

Rei- Ok I raised the temp and made it a little darker in the cage. temp is sitting at 78 right now

CL77- That's perfect!

3. Is a heat source used in the tank? If so, what? Yes daylight heat bulb and night time black light heat bulb and under tank heater placed on back right glass of tank

CL77-What is the uth brand? Zoo Med uths are known not to work very well. Ultratherm and Fluker's are good brands. Just a note, heat lamps are known to zap humidty.

Rei- The heat pad I am using is a Ultratherm. It was recommend I believe by you in another one of post so thank you for that. They work amazingly well

CL77- Awesome!

4. What types of water are available (fresh or salt) and how is the water treated (what brands of dechlorinator or salt mix and what ratio is used to mix it)?
Salt and fresh
Salt water is bought for crabs from Walmart and I don’t treat it it says it’s treated and ready to use
Fresh water is distilled baby water treated with zoo med hermit crab drinking water conditioner

CL77- Unfortunately, many things marketed for hermits aren't great for them, or aren't sufficient. It's fine to use tap water with a dechlorinator. Many of us use Prime because it detoxifies heavy metals and removes chlorine and chloramine. For salt water, you need to use a marine salt like Instant Ocean.

Rei- The salt water says marine salt and distilled water are the only indredents and treated dechlor but I will start making my own do you have a recipe for that? I will also look into switching to Prime.

CL77- You can buy a small box of Instant Ocean at PetSmart/Petco or on Amazon. You mix 1/2 cup of salt per gallon. I don't use that much at once so I do 1/4 cup per half gallon. You can also get Prime at the pet store or on Amazon. I use it for my crabs, tortoise, and fish.

5. What kinds of food do you feed and how often is it replaced?
Food is replaced every other day
Fresh fruit I have on hand. Tonight it’s bananas
Thrive hermit crab food medley

CL77- Variety is key. Hermits can eat many of the things we eat. You'll want to make sure you are offering lots of protein and calcium daily. Some good calcium sources are cuttlebone, calcium powder, eggshells, oyster shells, and crab/lobster exo. Pellets aren't great for hermits long term, so you'll want to phase those out.

Rei- I am only using the pellets until the food comes in that I orders from the HermitCrabShack that was recommended in the food forums

6. How long have you had the crab and what species is it, if known?

7. Has your crab molted, and how long ago did it happen?

8. What type of housing are the crabs kept in, what size is it and what kind of lid is on the housing?

9. How many crabs are in the tank and about how large are they?
Tiny to small 4

10. How many extra shells are usually kept in the tank, if any? 10 plus

CL77- Be sure to offer shells with the preferred opening type. Purple pinchers prefer shells with round openings, like turbos. Keep 3-5 shells per crab in the tank. From your pic, she looks like a PP.

Rei- Is there a way to find out what kind of crab all my crabs are like a list or forum on here? and there are 14 total empty shells in the tank all with round openings.

CL77- If you want to post pics, I'm sure we could take a look to see what species they are. Most likely they are PPs. I believe there is an identification guide on here, just not sure where. I'll check it out.

11. Have there been any fumes or chemicals near the crabitat recently?
No

12. How often do you clean the tank and how?
I do low maintenance cleaning daily

13. Are sponges used in the water dish? If so, how are they cleaned?
No

14. Has anything new been added to your crabitat recently?
Foggers to help with humidity water same as drinking water used in them

CL77- Since foggers put out a lot of moisture, be sure to check your substrate once in a while for flooding. Take a chop stick or straw down the glass on one of the sides. If water pools at the bottom, the substrate is flooded.

Rei- There is no flooding right now but now that i am aware of it I will be watching

15. Is there any other information you would like to share that might be helpful (anything that is regularly part of your crab care, playtime, bathing, etc.)?
We lost one crab before the fogger was installed. She had recently surface molted and was pretty active and seemed healthy. Then just died. But she was super pale after her molt and never got her color back. And that is why I am concerned with this crab.

16. Please describe the emergency situation in detail.

Okay let’s start with she molted the same time one just lost did. She also surfaced molted. she is as pale as Luna was as well. She was extremely active yesterday and then she disappeared. We figured she dug. Then this morning saw her climbing in her favorite spot in a new shell. But this evening she is super pale and not responding to bananas which she loves. I haven’t seen her drink or eat this evening at all. And she is not as active as she has been the last week. Picture of her attached. Though she is tucked up in here shell in the one from today. The other one is from 2 days ago when she was playing on a plant

CL77-I would make the suggested changes I mentioned above as soon as you can (boost the temp, use a better dechlorinator, switch to a marine salt, and add more protein and lots of calcium to her diet). Try not to handle her since she isn't feeling well, that will just stress her out more.

Rei- What are some quick ways I can add protein and calcium to her diet while I am waiting on good food to come in?

CrabbyLover77 wrote: CL77- Do you have eggs? Scrambled or hard boiled eggs are a great source of protein. You can use the crushed up shells for calcium. I wash my shells out, then heat them in the microwave for 2 mins to dry them out. If you have any ground beef, chicken, turkey, etc, you can cook that up plain (or with any crabby safe foods) and offer that to them.



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reighleyscrew wrote: Thank you so much I will be boiling some eggs when I get home and then I’ll try to cook up some meat too if I have any on hand. We tend to eat out a lot.


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CrabbyLover77 wrote:Aw that's great!
I grind mine down into a powder, but it's totally up to you how you want to offer them.

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