HCA: Hermit Crab Association

For the past month my crabs have showed no sign of activity. Food is ignored, water never has signs of dirt (or poop). The moss hasn't been thrown around, no new holes. Prior to this a few weeks I only had one of my four crabs above ground. I don't know if I assume death, or what?

What size are your crabs? My understanding is that even for small or medium crabs, six to eight weeks down for a molt is not unusual.

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Do you mind filling this out? Sometimes crabs can be ninja like and leave no evidence... How many are up now?

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1 play sand eco earth mixed, sand castle consistency, 7-8 inches deep
2 gauge is top left corner, 75 at night, up to 85 in the day

3 two heaters - one on the back, one on the side. Both are currently off as temps were getting to be 100 in the day

4 salt and fresh water in dishes deep enough to submerge. Water isn't chlorinated so no need to use a dechlorinator.

5 fresh food - beef, broccoli, Apple, egg, eggshell, honey, etc. Changed every day

6 we have had them since March 5, all purple pincher

7 the three I've seen the least went down right away for around a month and could be seen briefly at night. The most active crab went down after two weeks and came up fairly quickly. All had signs of having molted.

8 20 gallon tall aquarium. Wire lid covered with foil and towels

9 4 crabs. One is tiny, one borders tiny/small, the other two are small

10 about 20 shells, maybe more, of various sizes

11 no fumes or chemicals

12 clean out any mold, spilled food, and gross moss every other day. Water dishes every few days. Decorations about once a month

13 no sponges

14 nothing new

15 they're barely handled. Usually observed 5 minutes or so when they're up and active. My kids are young and I don't want them to accidentally harm the crabs - shaking, dropping, etc. I don't like disturbing the tat because the tiniest is a shallow digger and uses a decoration as the top of his cave always. I'm afraid to interrupt him mid molt.

16 no signs of activity

If they are really small they could be molting again or getting ready too. The smaller ones molt more often. I've noticed mine go down for 6 weeks then come up for a few and go back down.

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Oh! And what kind of water is it? City, well, or bottled?

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It's well water - regularly tested for impurities, etc.

How's your humidity? Sorry if I missed it somewhere.

Humidity is fairly stable at 90% - 85% at the lowest.

Everything sounds good. Smaller crabs do dig more in my experience and of course, molt more frequently. I don't think there's anything to worry about.

I did a deep clean today - removing decor, filling holes. I found one empty shell that I am pretty sure belonged to a crab. Our tiny one is capable of hiding way back in his shell unnoticed, but I think this shell is too heavy for him. No signs of the other 3, but I smoothed out the top so hopefully I'll know if there's any activity that I'm just completely missing.

Update - as of yesterday Jasmine, our biggest was back up and eating. She's now a deep purple color.

Awesome!

I'm happy to report all but one have appeared.

Yay!