HCA: Hermit Crab Association

My family rescued 2 hermit crabs on 7/10/2021. One molted last month and the other one just did last night. How many crabs would you recommend in a 3 gallon terrarium?

Hi!

Unless you are wrong about the size tank you listed in your post, I wouldn't recommend ANY crabs to live in that terrarium. The general rule of thumb that many hermit crab owners go by, is 10 gallons per hermit crab. So, if you have 2 hermit crabs, you will need at least 20 gallons to meet the minimum needs of your hermit crabs. 3 gallons is super-duper tiny, so I would move them out of there ASAP! If you are new hermit crab owner like it seems from the title of your post, you probably don't know a ton about how to take care of hermit crabs yet, and don't know their needs. I would check out the HCA's forums on tank necessities, and also check out the youtube channel Crab Central Station's videos on how to set up a hermit crab tank. Hermit crabs in the wild walk miles upon miles at night, and hermit crabs in captivity at the very least need to have enough room to move around a decent amount.

If you do not give your hermit crabs enough space, than you risk them competing against each other for resources. Crabs sometimes fight if they don't have enough space/resources and if this problem is not fixed soon, they may even attempt to eat each other because their needs are not being met. Maybe you can figure out a temporary storage bin that is larger to set up for them, until you can get at least a 20 gallon tank for them. If you get another crab then you will need at least a 30 gallon tank.

Here's the link to the video I referenced: https://youtu.be/hFh52rrqQWw

If you have any questions lmk! This should be sorted asap to make sure your hermit crabs can live happily.

Hope I was able to help.

Ten gallons per crab is excessive for most crabs but they still need a good amount of space.

Stocking is determined by the surface area of the tank, which is needed to ensure the crabs can dig down and molt safely.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

IT'S A 10 GALLON TANK!! That was a typo.
Hi!/

Unless you are wrong about the size tank you listed in your post, I wouldn't recommend ANY crabs to live in that terrarium. The general rule of thumb that many hermit crab owners go by, is 10 gallons per hermit crab. So, if you have 2 hermit crabs, you will need at least 20 gallons to meet the minimum needs of your hermit crabs. 3 gallons is super-duper tiny, so I would move them out of there ASAP! If you are new hermit crab owner like it seems from the title of your post, you probably don't know a ton about how to take care of hermit crabs yet, and don't know their needs. I would check out the HCA's forums on tank necessities, and also check out the youtube channel Crab Central Station's videos on how to set up a hermit crab tank. Hermit crabs in the wild walk miles upon miles at night, and hermit crabs in captivity at the very least need to have enough room to move around a decent amount.

If you do not give your hermit crabs enough space, than you risk them competing against each other for resources. Crabs sometimes fight if they don't have enough space/resources and if this problem is not fixed soon, they may even attempt to eat each other because their needs are not being met. Maybe you can figure out a temporary storage bin that is larger to set up for them, until you can get at least a 20 gallon tank for them. If you get another crab then you will need at least a 30 gallon tank.

Here's the link to the video I referenced: https://youtu.be/hFh52rrqQWw

If you have any questions lmk! This should be sorted asap to make sure your hermit crabs can live happily.

Hope I was able to help.
[/quote]

It is a 10 gallon tank, not 3 gallons.

Ah okay. hahaha. That's kind of what I thought lol. If you have really small crabs that's probably fine for now, but I would look at the chart that was in the reply above to know for sure haha.

Have a great day lol