HCA: Hermit Crab Association

My sons crab died last night.
I decided I would put this here since we noticed him acting strange the past couple of weeks. We’ve had our Hermie since my son was 2, he’s 15 now. And usually during the winter time he stays in his cubby hole we have where his warming pad is, but this winter the the past few weeks he kept roaming around the tank staying away from it. I touched the pad to make sure it wasn’t glitching and over heating or anything. Everything was normal. Tank was the same as always. We always give him eggshells, and store bought hermit food as well as ground almonds and treats like honey and peanut butter and fresh veggies and fruits. But he was just acting off.
This morning we got up and he was out of his shell, and not limp, stiff and curled up, he climbed out of shell at some point and died?
My son is so upset. He’s on the spectrum.
Is it normal for them to come out of their shells before they die?

First, I am so sorry for your loss. You were so lucky to have him for such a long time. It is difficult to properly age a hermit crab, so there is no telling how old he was when you first got him. I do believe it is entirely normal for them to leave their shell to pass. Are planning on getting another one? If so I would recommend getting two so they have company. They are very social creatures.

So sorry for your loss. Many times they leave their shell because they are too weak to carry it.

Sorry your son's crab passed away. As stated, a crab will leave it's shell when it is too weak to carry it. Crabs can survive in sub optimal conditions for only so long before they run out of energy. There could be areas of your conditions/ diet/ water/ temp/ humidity/ sub that could be improved. If you would like us to offer further suggestions as to what went wrong, you could fill in the emergency template (cope and paste it with your answers) and we can help.

PattyJ4437 wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 15, 2020 11:45 am

First, I am so sorry for your loss. You were so lucky to have him for such a long time. It is difficult to properly age a hermit crab, so there is no telling how old he was when you first got him. I do believe it is entirely normal for them to leave their shell to pass. Are planning on getting another one? If so I would recommend getting two so they have company. They are very social creatures.

We bought him many companions over the years, some died due to stress molts and others I’m pretty sure he killed. Even separating them during molting periods and then placing them back in when it was safe, I think I had a serial killer crab .
We haven’t asked our son if he wants another yet. My husband is entirely on board with getting more.

curlysister wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 15, 2020 1:28 pm

Sorry your son's crab passed away. As stated, a crab will leave it's shell when it is too weak to carry it. Crabs can survive in sub optimal conditions for only so long before they run out of energy. There could be areas of your conditions/ diet/ water/ temp/ humidity/ sub that could be improved. If you would like us to offer further suggestions as to what went wrong, you could fill in the emergency template (cope and paste it with your answers) and we can help.

My husband came back from the mall with him and another crab when my son was two with a tiny tank full of rocks.The other crab died probably from stress I guess? So we don’t know how old he was when we got him. I started googling and found out everything I could. I bought sterile sand and coconut fiber and mixed it, kept it moist. He would bury down and molt, sometimes for two months at a time. He always had salt and fresh water. We had the warming pad against one side of the tank not the bottom. His tank has a small mister. A gauge was in there.

So it was a glass tank?

Crabby7Crabber wrote: ↑

Thu Jan 23, 2020 1:38 am

So it was a glass tank?

Yes he was in a glass tank. He always had enough substrate to bury and hide and molt in, we wouldn’t see him for weeks sometimes, 2 months was the longest. Unless he dug near the glass and we had a peep show! He has salt water and fresh water. And for a variety of foods. He was rarely handled, although he didn’t seem to mind being handled by be and would peek out of his shell for me.
We are still thinking about getting another one or two but no one sells them here except PetCo and PerSmart and I’m leery of buying from them. We don’t have any exotic animal places. I’d kind of love to try raising a strawberry hermit crab. We bought a huge tank we’ve never used yet since we only had one crab.

Sorry it took so long to reply. I was in a car accident and I’ve been dealing with healing and insurance and everything. Nothing broken, just contusions everywhere.