HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I recently acquired 2 beautiful strawberries who are in ISO right now but in the four days now that i have had them they have not dug anywhere. I see no holes,tunnels,or disrupted substrate. They are active but chill time is huddled together in corner. I have 3 other species and all different sizes and they all dig! LOL. Is this normal?

eh I wouldn't sweat it, honestly, my strawberry's dig the least (maybe about the same as the pp's) out of all the crabs I have. but when they do, they may peace out for a day or a week just digging around and they will dig around the whole tank. I've found that my straws prefer to find a spot they enjoy, and then they'll just sit there for days and days and days (except when i'm not looking)

I recently added 2 new straws last week and neither of them have dug around at all either. I think that the straws honestly may get treated better and shipped/handled etc better than the standard PP's. so when we get them, they are not like freaking out. probably cause they're more rare so only X amount of people places can get them as opposed to a petco/petsmart who orders 1000000 at a time. and they cost more money once again maybe a reason for them to treat them better during the whole process. i dunno just my 2 cents.

only strawberry i had an issue with is, because he must of been attacked in a molt cause his legs are messed up/missing. but yet he's not even looking to molt, he's just chilling enjoying the tat, he'll dig when he's ready.

We have been lucky enough to start our crab family without having to use shipping methods,so this was my first. I was actually pretty disappointed with the shipping. Ive seen un boxing videos and none was how I received mine. Only thing on outside of box was fragile,so course the corners were crushed. Thought at least live animal would be tagged somewhere.
Thanx for your reply and guess I'll just sit back and enjoy!

I'm not in the live shipping trade by any means, but have done a few animals to say the least. In my opinion even just ground shipping or however it is you were sent it, directly from a collector/harvester or maybe just 1/2 off from the collector. as opposed to normal petstore crabs are shipped all over the place cross across hands of people and harvesters that don't care about them as they're the common species so to speak, with the worst conditions, and packed with like 1000 in a tiny box. the rares i think get a little more love. They all have to be shipped somehow hope it works out. pix?

question, do they still have hairs on their legs, and or their nails on their legs? do their eyes look cloudy or fresh and clean?

they are still hairy and do have some black tips..not to long but noticeable. The eyes could be a little more clear I feel..not to sue how to add a pix on here yet..can ya help there??

easiest way to upload pix etc is to download an app on your phone called tapatalk and then use that, super easy to upload photos etc.

sounds like they're semi fresh from a molt, which is why they probably dont' feel a crazy desire to dig, they're just acclimating. sounds totally normal.

It was the next day and they started digging..still no tunnels but holes that they just sit in. Feeling better now. They have been moved out of ISO and in their own 20L. Still figuring out the pucture thing but when i do..watch out! LOL
Thanx for everyone's input!

It was the next day and they started digging..still no tunnels but holes that they just sit in. Feeling better now. They have been moved out of ISO and in their own 20L. Still figuring out the pucture thing but when i do..watch out! LOL
Thanx for everyone's input!

Strawberries' eyes are not very shiny anyway, sort of cloudy steel grey is normal.

And for what it is worth, mine NEVER dig unless it is to go molt. They have a couple of fav places that they sit (for hours by the way) and the male inexplicably hangs on the fishnet near the top, every day. I don't know how to explain this but they seem to "sit with purpose" LOL.

They climb, run around and all over things, and when they are tired, they go back to their "recharging" spot.

Mine do the same. Whatever ones are up are always sitting by the pools getting splashed by the bubblers. It's their go to spot. I haven't seen three of the seven straws in like over a month. Hopefully they make it up fine. It's a molting fiesta right now. With the PPs too. But yeah the straws love hanging out and climbing. They're my fave out of my PPs and e's