HCA: Hermit Crab Association

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 as best you can. 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. The things in the [ brackets ] are there to make this post easier to read once submitted. Thanks!


1. What kind of substrate is used in your tank and how deep is it?
I currently have the 5:1 mix of EE and sand. It is a dark brown/tan mix. The substrate is only 4" because my hermit crabs are in their travel/isolation cage. I was on vacation when Shelldon when down to molt (He is now up and is the crab I am really concerned about) then my other crab went down to molt a week later.

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?
The humidity is 72% and the temperature is 72°. The thermometer/hydrometer is located on the right upper quadrant of the front of the enclosure above the food.


3. Is a heat source used in the tank? If so, what?
No heat source because the travel cage is plastic.

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)?
I currently have fresh water treated with Tetrafauna Aquasafe Reptile water treatment.

5. What kinds of food do you feed and how often is it replaced?
Dry hermit crab food from Etsy. Currently in cage is worm castings, "Beta booster", "Brocollo Cricket" and "Eggs Omlet". It is replaced every 3 days or as needed.

6. How long have you had the crab and what species is it, if known?
I have had both crabs for one year in July. Shelldon is a Purple Pincer. My other crab, Myrtle who is down molting currently is also a Purple Pincer.

7. Has your crab molted, and how long ago did it happen?
Shelldon (the crab with the fly in the shell) molted last October and just finished molting a few days ago . Myrtle molted last November and is currently down molting which is why I haven't just removed them both from the tank and cleaned everything as all the articles have said.

8. What type of housing are the crabs kept in, what size is it and what kind of lid is on the housing?
Currently they are in their travel/isolation tank. It is a 3 gallon tank I believe. It has multiple natural sticks to climb on and one large limb as the main decoration with mesh on it for them to climb all over. I have cling wrap on 90% of the lid held on by the snap on lid.

9. How many crabs are in the tank and about how large are they?
I have 2 Purple pincher crabs in the tank. Their shell opening sizes are:
Shelldon: 1/2 inch
Myrtle: 5/8 inch

10. How many extra shells are usually kept in the tank, if any?
I currently have 8 extra shells in the tank. I keep at least 5 per crab always.

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

12. How often do you clean the tank and how?
I last fully cleaned the tank 2 months ago and do spot cleaning every week.

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

14. Has anything new been added to your crabitat recently?
I was growing some sprouts for the crabs in a plastic bag on a window near the tank, which is where the flies came from. Nothing inside new added.

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.)?


16. Please describe the emergency situation in detail.
About 2 weeks ago I started to grow some sprouts for my hermit crabs in a plastic bag in my window. I had noticed some of the (I belive) Fruit flies for a few days and thought maybe they just came in the dirt. I had seen one or two in my hermit cahe the past two days and wasn't too concerned and just thought they would die from lack of food. Then tonight I took My crab Shelldon out to play and stretch His legs like usual and when He was in my hand one of the flies flew out of His shell then flew back in!!!!! I am freaking out!! I tried getting Shelldon to come more out of His shell to maybe get it to fly out,but nothing. What do I do?!?!? I also am concerned because I can't clean out the cage because my other crab Myrtle is down molting and has only been down a week so will probably be down another 3 weeks so I can't just move them back to their regular cage or clean this one out without disturbing Her. In all the threads I read on fruit or fungus flies none said anything about a fly coming out of a living crabs Shell though! I am so concerned. Shelldon seems to be behaving and eating normally. I'm wondering if He has some food stored in His shell or something. PLEASE HELP!!!


Update: Since doing more research I believe the flies are actually fungus gnats not fruit flies since they originally came from the soil. And I did check and my other crab is alive because my first though was maybe they were in the cage because She had died while molting.

Thanks All!!
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1. What kind of substrate is used in your tank and how deep is it?
I currently have the 5:1 mix of EE and sand. It is a dark brown/tan mix. The substrate is only 4" because my hermit crabs are in their travel/isolation cage. I was on vacation when Shelldon when down to molt (He is now up and is the crab I am really concerned about) then my other crab went down to molt a week later.

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?
The humidity is 72% and the temperature is 72°. The thermometer/hydrometer is located on the right upper quadrant of the front of the enclosure above the food.
Curly - You could bump up both the temp and humidity a bit - they are in the low end of the safe zone, so a bit higher would give more margin of error.

3. Is a heat source used in the tank? If so, what?
No heat source because the travel cage is plastic.

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)?
I currently have fresh water treated with Tetrafauna Aquasafe Reptile water treatment.
Curly - It is recommended to have both dechlorinated fresh water, and salt water made with marine salt. The brand of dechlorinator you have may not remove everything you need it to, such as ammonia. Check out the 'water' care sheet for full info about water.
viewtopic.php?f=127&t=92553


5. What kinds of food do you feed and how often is it replaced?
Dry hermit crab food from Etsy. Currently in cage is worm castings, "Beta booster", "Brocollo Cricket" and "Eggs Omlet". It is replaced every 3 days or as needed.

6. How long have you had the crab and what species is it, if known?
I have had both crabs for one year in July. Shelldon is a Purple Pincer. My other crab, Myrtle who is down molting currently is also a Purple Pincer.

7. Has your crab molted, and how long ago did it happen?
Shelldon (the crab with the fly in the shell) molted last October and just finished molting a few days ago . Myrtle molted last November and is currently down molting which is why I haven't just removed them both from the tank and cleaned everything as all the articles have said.

8. What type of housing are the crabs kept in, what size is it and what kind of lid is on the housing?
Currently they are in their travel/isolation tank. It is a 3 gallon tank I believe. It has multiple natural sticks to climb on and one large limb as the main decoration with mesh on it for them to climb all over. I have cling wrap on 90% of the lid held on by the snap on lid.
Curly - If you have the larger tank set up, and are able to maintain both tanks, I would move each crab over as they are up. A 3 gallon tank is probably too small for them.

9. How many crabs are in the tank and about how large are they?
I have 2 Purple pincher crabs in the tank. Their shell opening sizes are:
Shelldon: 1/2 inch
Myrtle: 5/8 inch

10. How many extra shells are usually kept in the tank, if any?
I currently have 8 extra shells in the tank. I keep at least 5 per crab always.

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

12. How often do you clean the tank and how?
I last fully cleaned the tank 2 months ago and do spot cleaning every week.

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

14. Has anything new been added to your crabitat recently?
I was growing some sprouts for the crabs in a plastic bag on a window near the tank, which is where the flies came from. Nothing inside new added.

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.)?


16. Please describe the emergency situation in detail.
About 2 weeks ago I started to grow some sprouts for my hermit crabs in a plastic bag in my window. I had noticed some of the (I belive) Fruit flies for a few days and thought maybe they just came in the dirt. I had seen one or two in my hermit cahe the past two days and wasn't too concerned and just thought they would die from lack of food. Then tonight I took My crab Shelldon out to play and stretch His legs like usual and when He was in my hand one of the flies flew out of His shell then flew back in!!!!! I am freaking out!! I tried getting Shelldon to come more out of His shell to maybe get it to fly out,but nothing. What do I do?!?!? I also am concerned because I can't clean out the cage because my other crab Myrtle is down molting and has only been down a week so will probably be down another 3 weeks so I can't just move them back to their regular cage or clean this one out without disturbing Her. In all the threads I read on fruit or fungus flies none said anything about a fly coming out of a living crabs Shell though! I am so concerned. Shelldon seems to be behaving and eating normally. I'm wondering if He has some food stored in His shell or something. PLEASE HELP!!!


Update: Since doing more research I believe the flies are actually fungus gnats not fruit flies since they originally came from the soil. And I did check and my other crab is alive because my first though was maybe they were in the cage because She had died while molting.
Curly - Have you checked out the 'bugs' care sheets? Fungus gnats are not harmful to the crabs. If may just be a coincidence that it was in the shell right at that moment.
viewtopic.php?f=124&t=92537

Thank You Curly! You have helped Me in the past too and I so appreciate the response and knowledge. I had already searched the bugs care sheet and pretty much the whole internet prior to posting this emergency posting. But to update anyone who may look at this for help in the furture, I was able to resolve the situation thankfully! Here is what I did:

I went ahead and cleaned just the the top 1" layer of substrate as to not bother my then molting crab. I also removed ALL of the sphagnum moss from the cage as well as well as most of the natural decorations for two reasons-1) to get rid of any hiding spots and babies, and 2) so I could clearly see the gnats and easily kill any by hand that I spotted. There were ALot of gnats on the moss by the way! I also removed the worm castings I always keep in my cage for a few weeks since dirt is what they love to eat and nest in. I also changed and cleaned the hermit crab food tray a lot more often because I had found some fungus gnat baby webbing (looks like food mold combined with a spider web) beneath the food tray. In doing all of this the fungus gnats were pretty much completely gone in about 1.5 weeks. But I will say from research that mine was a relatively mild case-max of only 15 fungus gnats. My main concern and the reason I posted this was because of the fungus gnat that had flown in and out of Shelldon's shell that night but I never got a response on what to do about that unfortunentely. I never saw the gnat do that again though and I kept my crab's next to Me most of the 1.5 weeks so Im pretty sure the gnat died inside the shell or flew out and hopefully I killed it.

Gently take your crab out of the shell then keep the hermit crab in water make sure it’s shallow enough. then check the size of the shell now get atleast ten-twenty shell’s ( different types) and line them up in the tank now wait for your hermit crab to choose

Gently take your crab out of the shell then keep the hermit crab in water make sure it’s shallow enough. then check the size of the shell now get atleast ten-twenty shell’s ( different types) and line them up in the tank now wait for your hermit crab to choose

Evie wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 03, 2022 1:26 am

Gently take your crab out of the shell then keep the hermit crab in water make sure it’s shallow enough. then check the size of the shell now get atleast ten-twenty shell’s ( different types) and line them up in the tank now wait for your hermit crab to choose

I'm sorry, but it's really really not a good idea to try to take your crab OUT of his shell. You can measure the shell with him in it.

Evie wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 03, 2022 1:26 am

Gently take your crab out of the shell then keep the hermit crab in water make sure it’s shallow enough. then check the size of the shell now get atleast ten-twenty shell’s ( different types) and line them up in the tank now wait for your hermit crab to choose

As JiMills stated, it is NEVER a good idea to force a crab out of it's shell. There are no circumstances in which this would be recommended.