HCA: Hermit Crab Association

My crabs only change shells when the shells are in the salt water pool. Is this common.
As background: I’ve only had my small crabs For 6 months and 1 has just come up from his 2nd molt. The second is currently down for his second molt. They wear < 1/2” shells.

Ive never encountered this myself but maybe others have. Perhaps anyone else can shed some lignt on the subject. Id be very interested to see if this had occurred with other crabbers


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Some crabs seem more receptive to shells when they’re salty. I don’t know why.


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I thought it might be the slipperyness of salt water. Oddly enough my first shell change was into a petrified shell I was using as a water ladder. I moved all of the purchased shells into the water and Boom they went on a change spree. Rocky wears others for awhile but always goes back to that heavy petrified shell and seems happy and active.
Thanks for the responses.

This is so interesting to me! If saltwater makes shells more enticing to some, I wonder if it could be used as a possible tool to re-shell a naked crab...


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I plan to experiment:
Shells in fresh water and salt water then switch them etc.

I plan to experiment:
Shells in fresh water and salt water then switch them etc.

I’ll be curious how it turns out, keep us posted!


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My crabs sometime switch in the saltwater pool, I even recorded it.