fairly new crab owner

[sub.zero]

I'm new to this but ive been taking care of 2 hermies for about a month or two. I didn't know and I just wanted a better life. I got 2 hermies at a sovenier shop at South Padre. We wanted a better life for them so we got a naked crab and another crab. The naked one didnt make the trip, but Athens did. Then later we realized that he needed a buddy. We went to an actual pet store and got the smallest crab we could find. Turns out he's between a Jumbo and large one, Athens is maybe a medium.

Now recently Athens has been in his shell all the time and only leaves to move to a better spot underneath out ramp/hide away. He was super active when we got him and now he's always hiding away. Is he molting, stressed, both? Also would a 10 gallon tank work for them? (Im gonna try making it 2 story)

[Hermias_mom]

Welcome to HCA! Without more information about your tank conditions, it's hard to know for sure what's going on. Here is a link to the care sheets which might answer some of your questions. http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/ph ... m.php?f=51 There's also a template in the Emergency forum, which if you fill it out and paste it here, we'll be happy to identify ways you can improve your crab's habitat and care.

That's awesome that you are trying to take good care of your crabs! Good for you! They go through so much before they come to us, it's good they have someone who cares enough about them to give them the best possible conditions. Unfortunately, many crabs die after purchase due to Post Purchase Syndrome (PPS). I can't tell if this is what's wrong with Athens or not, but you might want to consider looking into it. There's a care sheet about PPS, and some ideas in there about ways to help them adjust to captivity and reduce stress, hopefully in an effort to avoid dying of PPS.

If you are looking into purchasing a tank, you might consider going bigger than a 10 gallon if you're able to. According to HCA recommendations, a large crab needs around 7 gallons of space, and Jumbos need at least 15 gallons of space each, and the minimum recommended tank size is 55 gallons for a Jumbo (so they can have the tank width needed to turn around). Since one of your crabs is a large/Jumbo, I'd recommend taking a close look at the HCA tank size and space per crab recommendations before upgrading their tank. There's also a crab sizing chart, so you can determine exactly what size your crab is according to HCA definitions - this helps when determining how much space the crab needs and how big his tank needs to be. Also, substrate should be a depth of 3 times the height of your largest crab or 6" MINIMUM, whichever is higher. If your crab's a jumbo, 6" substrate will probably not be deep enough, and a 10 gallon tank is only about 12" tall, so by the time you get, say, 9" of substrate in there, the crab would barely have room to walk, much less have space for water bowls and such. So tank height due to substrate depth is also something to consider when upgrading your tank.

As far as why Athens is hiding away, several possibilities occur to me. Without more info on your tank conditions I can't give you a probable cause, but here's some things to consider. Crabs need a minimum of 80% humidity and 80F temperature. If he's too cold, he won't move around so much. When a larger crab becomes part of the colony, the smaller crabs will often submit to him. So maybe the personality change is due to you introducing your larger crab to Athens. My middle sized crab was like that. When she was the biggest she was really outgoing, but once I brought home a larger crab buddy for her, she became very timid, and my largest crab was very outgoing. Crabs are nocturnal. So Athens may be moving around, you just aren't seeing it in the middle of the night. Athens could be super stressed still, and now that he's in a better situation, he needs time to recover from the capture and transport process that brought him to the beach store and to you. Many crabbers recommend that you are basically hands-off and minimize any stress in their environment until after their first molt. Another reason for the personality change could be that Athens was starving, but now has a decent source of food and water. What are you feeding him? What kind of water are you using and how are you treating it? Commercial crab food (pellets) are not good for them, most of us here feed them organic people food. In the care sheets there's a great safe food list and food pyramid so you can see what their dietary requirements are. Also check out the water care sheet - crabs need both freshwater (treated with a dechlorinator that removes ammonia, nitrates/nitrites, heavy metals, and chlorine) and saltwater (made with a product like Instant Ocean - be careful not to use the wrong type of salt when you mix up their saltwater - they need special nutrients found in ocean saltwater).

One of the first priorities your crabs will have is to molt. They are looking for good conditions and substrate to do it in. Many folks on here use a 5:1 playsand/cocofiber substrate moistened to sandcastle consistency with marine saltwater (Instant Ocean used to make the saltwater). It has to be 3 times the depth of your largest crab or at least 6" minimum, whichever is deeper to hold their molting caves properly. Check out the Molting care sheet for details about molting. Once your crab has successfully completed his first molt, he is usually considered no longer in danger of dying from PPS.

Hope you find what you're looking for. If you have any further questions, please ask. Best of luck and happy crabbing!

[LadyJinglyJones]

Welcome to the HCA!

Hermias_mom covered about every thing...

So I just wanted to add that the salt water product you really need is marine salt mix. Be sure you don't purchase 'hermit crab' branded salt water additives, sea salt, or 'aquarium salt'. None of these has the elements of true ocean water. You can buy marine salt mix in the saltwater section of many pet stores & any that stock salt water fish.

Also, crabs can learn to walk on hamster wheels... I mention this because you have a jumbo, and these are large (for land crustaceans) animals that can and do travel quite a distance in the wild, so it's natural for them to want to stretch their legs! It isn't something you 'need' to get them now - I'd focus on getting a big enough tank & getting heat and humidity up to 80 first.... but later on, bear it in mind! There are lots of cute videos of crabs on wheels.

And keep asking questions!