HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Greetings and salutations! I had hermit crabs as a teenager forty years ago and thought it might be fun to have one again after my cat died. I live in a tiny house, so I thought a tiny pet would be perfect. Especially one that would be cheap and easy to care for, so I stopped by PetSmart on Tuesday and walked out loaded down with stuff and a new crab, Shelley! And I'm so glad I found this forum while searching for hermit crab safe shell paint! Don't worry, thanks to you all, I learned painting their shells is a bad idea. And I also learned Shelley would be happier with a friend, so I went back and got Sandy! And, ha ha! These little buggers aren't cheap, are they? I'm in probably $200 already, and it hasn't even been a week!

Anyway, Shelley was really active for the first 24 hours, eating and playing in her water dish, rearranging her new home, and then she buried herself and I haven't seen her since. I'm a little worried. She hasn't come up to eat or drink. Sandy's been pretty active and seems to be adapting well. I miss my little friend Shelley and am going to be worried until I see her again. I hope she's OK!

Thank you for all the wonderful information on this site. I've learned I did everything wrong with my little hermies when I was a teenager, and it was sheer luck they survived as long as they did. I won't make the same mistakes with Shelley and Sandy!

Welcome!!
and do not be worried at all
crabs love to bury and dig to destress or for fun and might be going down to molt where they can go months without coming up just do not dig your crabs up when they are under

have you read all of our care guides? they give wonderful information

I'm glad to hear of another 'mature' crabber! I got my crabs when I was almost 40, and have had them for over ten years.
Welcome!

> have you read all of our care guides? they give wonderful information

I have! I read all of them. And because of them, I tripled the depth of my substrate by adding play sand to the shredded coconut bark, covered my tank to increase humidity (although it's already so humid here in the PNW I have dehumidifiers in my home, truck, and storage shed!), added a moss pit, and added fresh food to their diet, in addition to the store bought food (which they won't eat, btw!).

I've also looked at other people's tank setups and added a little pier, which I made myself from driftwood, to increase their living space. I know my 5.5 gallon tank is really too small for two crabs, but I live in a tiny house and literally don't have room for a bigger tank. So by adding levels for their stuff, I can free up the substrate to give them more room for burying themselves. I want to add one more pier, but I'm waiting for Shelley to come up so I don't have to worry about setting a piling on top of her. It should be pretty cool when I'm done, with sandy play area underneath the piers when I'm done with space for their extra shells. And then two piers for their food and water dishes and moss pit, connected by a log bridge, effectively almost doubling their available living space.

I hope this works out for them. Eventually, I'd like to build a custom tank to take full advantage of the area they are in, giving them a bit more vertical and horizontal space. But for now, this will have to do.

Thanks for the welcome!

Welcome to the HCA! Great info and great people here! Sounds like you’ve got a good set up! Def don’t worry about Shelley...crabs love to dig! She’s probably so happy that she can, depending on the conditions of the pet store...a lot of them don’t have deep substrate. She could easily be coming up at night when you’re asleep too. I was so curious about mine at night that I got a night vision camera, haha. So worth it! I’m 40 myself and the highlight of my morning is coffee and watching my crab videos! Lol


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