HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi folks

I'm a fairly new hermit crab owner and I added a new crab to the tank a couple of weeks ago. There is already one crab ('Turbo') in there who is quite active. The new crab chose a new shell after 24 hours and shortly thereafter buried itself in the substrate. It has been buried for coming up on two weeks now and I am resisting all temptation to disturb it but am getting a bit worried about it. The tank doesn't smell so I don't think it has just dug itself in and died but I would have thought that it would have come up by now, even if it was moulting...

The humidity in the tank is 80% and the substrate is sand, which is damp thanks to Turbo's amazing ability to remove the water from the water dish. I don't have a heating mat but I live in the tropics so the air temperature is (at this time of year) between 20-32 degrees C. I am not sure of the exact species of crab - it is fairly pinkish - but I am guessing it's not an exotic as we're pretty strict about importation of these kinds of things in Australia.

The tank that it was in in the pet shop had plenty of fresh veggies to eat and lots for them to do but had a stony substrate.

Should I be worried about this little crab or just be patient?

Thanks in anticipation of your help!

H

Hello and welcome!

If you're in Australia you likely have Coenobita variabilis. The only other species available there are Straws (C. perlatus) and its my understanding they're not found for sale often.

Molting can take anywhere from weeks to several months, depending on the size and condition of the crab. And being a new crab it's likely he spent some extra time destressing before molting. I wouldn't worry just yet.

They usually dig down for a few days to destress. This can take a few days to a week or even 2 weeks, depends on the crab. I wouldn't worry at the moment . It is normal.

Thank you for your responses! I'll try to not stress about it now! Hopefully it'll come up soon.

H

The new crab has emerged after two weeks... I am very happy! It's hard to see what kind of condition it is in because it's pretty dark in the room and I don't want to slam the lights on so will try to get a better look tomorrow. Hopefully it's wearing a fabulous new exoskeleton or is really chilled out and destressed. It was climbing around on a lump of coral (possibly eating it??) so I'm hoping it will also be attracted over to the fresh veggies in its food bowl. Now Turbo has dug himself in. Doh!

Congrats! If he is really hairy then he just molted and it will be easy to tell. Oh and yes they love coral . Lol it is good that he went down though. That first molt, stressful for us also, is a very important molt . GL n best wishes to your lil guys !

Thanks Nia

The new one (the first one to bury itself) appeared for a couple of days and has buried itself again making itself a little cave underneath an ornament, but it's fine. The other one has also not come up again but its cave is underneath the food bowl which I've had to pick up when I'm cleaning it. Yesterday I saw that it had moulted - that's its second moult in about 8 weeks. I guess I'll see them again when they're good and ready!

Congrats! He is doing good