HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi, new to hermit crabs here. We got 2 for my daughters about 3 weeks ago. After doing some research, I realized we needed to upgrade their habitat, so bought a used set up off Facebook Marketplace - 10 gallon glass covered tank with lots of nice sand, hiding structures, water/food bowls, heater and thermometer and humidity guage. I get home and put our crabs in and they seem to love it. They start digging and my daughter finds some buried shells, and it turns out the prvious owners hermit crab is in it, alive and well and comes out and walks around the tank!!!

I reached out to the person I bought the tank from and they said they were shocked and hadn’t seen the hermit crab in months, and their may be another one in there also I suggested to them that they may have been molting. They seemed embarrassed and said to enjoy our crabs new friends.

SO, I kept watch and all 3 crabs seemed to get along fine last night. This morning that new crab and one of my old ones must have dug under the sand.

Any tips or what should I watch out for given I now have 3, possibly a 4th), hermit crab? Is a 10 gallon tank too small now? Should I consider adopting out theses new crabs?

I would suggest bathing them so they all smell the same. You do not need a new tank until they start growing. I would keep the crabs the more hermies the better! you should also keep an eye on the crabs because I heard they can eat each Other! I wish you the best of luck BeckyM3538@yahoo.com!

Hi there!

Check out this page to decide if you need more room for your crabby friends:
http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... 51#p836451

Please give the basic care sheet a read too. There's a lot of good info in there:
http://hermitcrabassociation.com/phpBB/ ... 0&t=119273

Its recommended not to bathe hermits. Alternatively, you can give each newbie a quick dip in the fresh or salt water to make them smell the same as the tank. Sometimes this can reduce aggression towards a new crab. Otherwise, bathing can disturb the balance of fresh and saltwater the hermits are carrying in their shells. They will soak themselves in either fresh or salt water when they feel it's necessary.

When a hermit is molting, it can give off a "yummy food" smell to other crabs. This is why it's important to have at least 6" of substrate (or 3x the height of your biggest crab, whichever is deeper), to give them plenty of room to molt undisturbed. Any time a crab surface molts (which is not normal), they must be isolated from the other crabs to avoid being attacked. However, if you have the proper sub and sub depth, you shouldn't need to worry about the crabs eating each other. The crabs in my 55 gal are all friends, and I frequently find them hanging out in groups.

Happy Crabbing!


Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

Do you know if they are all the same species? If one is a different species then you may need to get a fourth crab so they all have a species buddy. congrats on your new friends!

Sent from my moto g power using Tapatalk

I have 1 PP and 1 E. They've been alone, together for at least 2 years now without any problems.

Sent from my SM-J337A using Tapatalk

The best thing you can do is to provide the best conditions you can (see links provided above) and leave them alone. Yes, 10g is too small (it is too small for any hermit crabs IMO, except as a temporary iso--these are wild animals used to wandering for miles every night in their natural habitat), so if you CAN create a much larger tank with much deeper substrate and transfer the active crabs into it, allowing any that have already dug down to stay down there and molt, then bringing them into the larger tank as they resurface and get active again, that is what I would do.

Bear in mind that most hermit crabs are terribly stressed and often injured by the horrible abusive process of being "harvested" from the wild and sold into captivity. This means that they often need to molt pretty quickly to try to repair the damage done. They need to burrow under and make a molting cave, and stay there undisturbed, for days, weeks, or months. This process will recur throughout their lives and generally takes longer the older they get (my jumbo Major Tom has been down this time for coming up on two years now; last time he took 18 months). During this time, you need to maintain conditions as good as you can, and keep fresh water sources and foods available so that when they do come up, they will have them available.

No matter what you do, hermit crabs often die within the first days, weeks, or months in captivity. We call this "Post-Purchase Syndrome;" it basically means that they were too badly hurt, by what has happened to them before they got to you, to recover. So it may well be that not all of these crabs will survive much longer. I would focus on providing the best conditions you can for what you have ended up with at this point; transfer the active ones into a larger crabitat if you have the resources to do that, and the molters once they are back up and around and active again, and go from there. Best wishes!