HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hello! I’ve been exploring different ways to enrich my crabs’ life, and since switching stuff up they seem to be more active in their enclosure.
I have two medium size crabs and one jumbo. Because of the jumbo crab’s enormous size, I have a disc hamster wheel instead of an upright one. The crabs like to play on it, but I kind of wish I had a normal wheel too. I don’t know how to accommodate for my jumbo’s size; a hamster wheel big enough for him will not fit in the enclosure (too tall).

Anyway, some things I have been doing to enrich my crabs: putting in dried up grape vines for them to tear up. Using coconut fiber mats for them to tear up. Lots of ladders and hammocks… to tear up. Hanging hide that they try to tear up. A puzzle cube to hide high-value treats in. And recently they’ve been rolling a coconut hide into a pool on the daily.

I feel like enrichment is important and I’d like to know if there are some tips for enrichment. What do your crabs like to do? How can I provide more enrichment? If you have a jumbo crab, how does it exercise?


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Sounds like you've got some frisky crabs!

I take mine out of her tank most evenings of the week, to walk around the house for a couple hours. Often in the kitchen/living area while I am making/eating dinner, where she can pick up random bits of dog food, house plants, etc. I've been doing this for several years, through several molts. Typically I start her walk in the bathroom when I am in the shower, which might be considered more "safe" if you are concerned about humidity. Anecdotally, I suspect that the large crabs (she is approx. the size of the palm of my hand, not sure of exact size category) are able to store water for a quite a while so it seems to be okay to do this for a couple hours at a time. We have a new dog who eats almost everything though, so I often just let the crab wander around in a safe room (bathroom). Before doing this kind of thing, you've got to be really careful to inspect the room for possible places to hide/disappear though.

Hello Gleasoce! Nice to meet you!
I'd agree and say that enrichment is VERY important. I have always prioritized it with my crabs! It seems like you're doing amazing so far.
I'm glad that crabocado's had success with free-roaming their crab (no hate over it, as that's what Carol Ormes did with Jonathan, if you're familiar with her and their story) but personally, I wouldn't recommend it due to the possible stress, lack of humidity, and possible chemical exposure. However, that's just my opinion, and I'm not trying to judge here!
It took me a whopping 8 months to set up my tank, mainly stemming from the cost of materials needed (it could have been built sooner, but I had to spread the purchases out). This also gave ample time to search and plan the tank out from top to bottom, and in this build, I wanted to go with a heavily naturalistic look, one that gave my crabs a lot of enrichment.
This is how the build turned out: https://imgur.com/a/BeaTKan
My tank looks a bit different now, as it's been more than a year since I first moved my crabs into it. Take note of the fake foliage and flowers- they add SO much color. My tank also includes a custom-built bridge with two coconut hides at the end, this I ordered from a seller on Etsy.
My tank also sports cork bark, a barnacle clump and a large lava rock.
To put it simply, I'd add whatever you think the crabs might see in the wild- rocks, leaf litter, cork, bark, wood (cholla or other safe woods), plenty of foliage, and add climbing opportunities. My crabs LOVE the custom-built bridge with coconut hides. However, a command hook kept falling for one of the sides, so it's been partially laying in the tank instead of being hung up for a while now. I need to fix that, lol. To be honest, the tank needs to be cleaned up overall. They've made a mess!
I hope this helps a little bit- feel free to ask any questions, I'd love to help!