New Crab Parents, saying Hi. Need help identifying.

[ColdLeftOvers]

Hi everyone,
Just wanted to drop a few lines and say hello. My 6yr old son and I are new parents to 2 crabs that grandma and grandpa picked up from a fair for my little guy.

After finding out everything wrong that the carney salesman told us about crab-care, I'm happy to report that our little critters are still going strong 3mos later and teaching my son a lot about patience and animal care.

We properly set up our 10gal crabitat with heat, humidity, substrate, 2 soaking pools with bubblers, tons of new shells and things to climb on.

So far, both crabs have switched out of their painted shells from the fair and I believe the little one has completed a molt and the big one has been down for about 2 weeks right now. One crab fits about a 3/8" shell opening and the other about a 1/2" to 3/4" opening I believe.

I'm not exactly sure what kind of crabs they are, I'm assuming PP's but I'll try to attach or upload some pics if anyone can help me identify them.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Da1g1O ... p=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Db_Wqk ... p=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DZUEzG ... p=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DO8erU ... p=drivesdk

Big Guy:



Little Guy:



Little guy switching into his 3rd shell since leaving the yellow shell:

[JTKermie]

Welcome! And cute little guys you have.

Sort of similar situation for me. My 9yr old son took a liking to hermit crabs. My only bad was store purchasing all 6 of ours.

I've got the crabitats set to proper standards, just frustrated I see basically no activity from them. Most are dug down.

[ColdLeftOvers]

Welcome! And cute little guys you have.

Thanks @JTKermie... same here, they've not been too active during daylight hours but I know they've been coming out at night since I've found food dropped and holes and such dug. The little guy has just started wandering around more in the early mornings and towards bedtime (8pm-ish).

I have a Hygger Programable LED that I set to a 12hr schedule with about 2hrs of soft-blue light at night to try and catch them out at "twilight" while I put my son to sleep. He was super-excited that the little crabbie is out and switching shells right now.

[JTKermie]

Those Hygger LED strip lights are nice. Lighting has come a long way for sure. I've been into fish keeping for years so I had a lot of the stuff already on hand for one of our 29g setups. I picked up a 30" "aquaneat" led strip light for the 2nd 29g. I keep it plugged into a lamp timer and both tank lights run for 12hrs/day.

[Jlmills525]

shell changes are always cool to watch! love how they move it all around and check out the inside before they slip into the new shells

[Pinche]

Too cute! They definitely look like Purple Pinchers to me.

[ColdLeftOvers]

Those Hygger LED strip lights are nice. Lighting has come a long way for sure.

Yeah... it works pretty well but sometimes it doesn't follow the timer programming and will stay on all night unless I manually adjust it. Don't know if it's an issue with the unit or if my son is messing with it.

I've been into fish keeping for years so I had a lot of the stuff already on hand for one of our 29g setups. I picked up a 30" "aquaneat" led strip light for the 2nd 29g

Same here... our current crab tank is our old fish tank and bubbler pump after we moved the fish into a 20gal. The crabbies seem ok in the 10gal but I think I want to bump them up to a 20gal or 29gal so they'll have a bit more room and we can put some better toys in there for them.

[ColdLeftOvers]

shell changes are always cool to watch! love how they move it all around and check out the inside before they slip into the new shells

It was really neat, and I'm surprised he did it while I was watching. Probably couldn't see me too well thru the foggy glass.

My son was bummed tho, because after trying out the new turbo shell for a few hours, he slipped back into his previous delphine shell while my kid was asleep and he missed it.

[ColdLeftOvers]

Too cute! They definitely look like Purple Pinchers to me.

Thanks, thats what I'm thinking as well.
Hopefully they'll be a little more active and social now that they've had a few molts. Their colors have definitely popped more since I took those pics when we 1st got them.

[Pinche]

How awesome! Look forward to seeing more of them. =)