HCA: Hermit Crab Association

1. Substrate used? play sand

2. Humidity % level in crabitat? 78

3. Temperature of substrate in crabitat? 80

4. Temperature of crabitat? 84

5. Location of gauges? middle of tat and close to bottom of tat

6. What is your heat source? uth

7. Types of water available? salt and fresh
8. Dechlorinator used? yes

9. What do you feed? fresh fruits, veggies, peanut butter honey siversides brine shrimp blood worms

10. How long have you had the crab in question? for several months

11. Do you know the species? pp's and e's

12. Do you bath them, if so how often and with what? no i have a big bath in the tat

13. What type of housing are they in? Tank? Plastic box? tank

14. What size is your tank? 20

15. How many crabs are in the tank? What size are they? 7 1lg 6 small

16. How deep is the substrate? about 4 inches

17. If you take your hermies out daily to exercise, do you mist their gill area first? dont take them out

18. Has there been any cleaners, paints, perfumes, air fresheners, candles, or smoking near the crabitat? no

19. How often do you clean/sterilize and how? about every 3 months

20. Any unusual odors? no

21. Do you use sponges? Are they rinsed daily with dechlor water? Are they exchanged every 2 days for a sterile one? dont use sponges

22. Do you feed fresh food? yes When do you remove it? i remove it every 24 hours because it gets gross

23. Are your hands clean before handling? yes

24. Has there been anything new added to your crabitat recently? no


last night when my son and i were watering our crabs and feeding all crabs were out..
thismorning when we got up and turned on the lights our lg crab was on 5 of our small crabs... all out of there shells and some had limbs removed... did he kill them? or was he just cleaning? i know some had just finished molting.. and now this... my last small guy has burried himself and i am afraid to dig him up to see what happened...
any advice?

he was definatly not cleaning them, I am almost positive that he was attacking. iso him away from the others immediatly. what kind of conditions are the others in? its possible that one or more of them could survive the stress of an attack, even with missing limbs.

Caroline

If there had been recent molting, then the smell could have attracted the big guy to the little ones. I had that happen once, and when I caught the fight, I bathed all the crabs in the same water bowl so that they all would smell the same. Haven't had that problem since. I wouldn't dig your little one up though. Just keep an eye on things if you can't ISO the large crab.

Sorry that happened to you.

thanks i put a big guy in a 10gallon for now.. the other ones were all nale and dead.. didnt even move... i just cant beleive he killed them all. i have had them since like January or feb and no problems only 2 deaths and they died withen day of me bringing them home...would he have ripped them out of there shells?

Do you have plenty of non painted shells from them to choose from? If not the big crab could have ripped the other crabs out of there shells because he wanted to see if they were big enough for him or like the other people said he could have just liked there smell and went crazy.

Sorry to hear.

It could be territorial issues also, 7 large crabs and 6 small in a 20 gallon is may be a bit much. In a 20g you should have 3 large OR 4 medium OR 9 small OR 12 teenie IMO. You may want to consider upgrading or dividing them into two tanks.

I agree with the too many hermies in a too small tank. I'd split them up if you are able to, or maybe adopt half of them out?

That is my worst hermie fear. I am so sorry for your loss.

I believe she only has 7 crabs. 1 large one an 6 small ones not 7 large ones and 6 small ones

I have a sm-med PP who is just nasty premolt. He has attacked larger crabs before he went down to molt. He took chunks of a BP on two of the larger crabs. He was nasty for over 6 months. When he finally came up from the molt he was cranky but not aggressive anymore. It helped when he went into iso. I think it gave him the quiet he needed to pull off the molt.
I am so sorry for your loss. Hope your little one is ok.

ya i only ha 7 crabs 1 lg and had 6 small now down to 2 the other little guy was out last night and seemed to be fine...

Silly me, you all are correct, I read it wrong because there wasn't a space before lrge. Sorry about that.