HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I decided to start a topic to see the way your crabs behave. I thought it would be a good idea since new comers are always asking "Is it normal for my crab to do that?" So i was thinking, We'll start this post and write all our crabs behavior, That way the new crabbers will know what to look for, and expect from their crabbies, That way they'll know wether what their crabs are doing is normal or not.

My crab's behavior,
They are kept in a 29gl tank with 5 inches of FB mixed with 4 cups playsand. My crabs seem to love to burrow in it, and when they dig down it keeps their air pockets open. During they day, They sometimes climb, eat, drink, or change shells, Since the temp. is hotter in the day, they like to hide between the plants, and grass, they never enter cocohuts during the day. I guess they feel like they're in their natural environment.(Climbing the tops of trees, and hiding in leaf's, and shrubbery) At night the go crazy! The crawl alover the place, eat, and drink, Climb everything, and hide in the cocohuts.
When i first bring them home, I always place them in ISO (isolation) and they soak in the salt water dish, and eat all the fresh food they can, and almost always dig down to destress. Then come back up about 2 weeks later and are ready for the main tank, I always bathe mine when im introducing, just so they'll all small clean.
When mine are getting ready to molt, they lose activity, eat and drink alot! and usually dig down. I try to ISO them when i notice this activity but not all my crabs go through it, Most just went down and suprised me.

That's all i can think of for now, So go ahead and add your crabs behavior to help out new crabbers

hermit-crabz-boi
~Allen Guerrero

During the day my hermit crabs usually hide in their rock cave, behind the fake plants, or climb. Usually they don't eat during daytime, unless I put a special treat they like in there. Usually they don't eat a lot so it's hard to notice they even eat. Every day when I clean their dishes though there is always a ton of sand it the water. Not much else I can say about mine, they haven't done anything exciting lately. Actually two of my hermit crabs are molting right now. They love to dig and molt. My largest hermit crab usually is in the food dish pigging out during the day, but he is one of the hermit crabs molting right now. My hermit crabs are still scared of me, whenever I walk by they retreat into their shells.

That's it. Good topic to start.

Although I have only had my hermies for almost 2 months, I have become quite aclimated to their different behaviors.

Ok.......here goes~~>

A few of mine tend to dig down during the daylight hours & then resurface at night. Most all of the others hide during the day in the coco-hut or under the 1/2 log.
I have found that most of mine tend to "make friends". ~ I notice the same hermies together most of the time. In fact, two of mine who were constantly together seem to be molting at the same time right now. (They have been down for a week now.) One of the other hermies who was always with those two seems to be lost right now....maybe missing her friends? I also have a molter in the ISO tank, & possibly another is molting, as she has been down for three days without making an appearance. (She could only be de-stressing, as I have only had her for 10 days, so not sure.) Some of the ones I suspect are molting showed prior signs that they may have been getting ready by frequently visiting the food bowl & dumping large amounts of water from both the salt & dechlorinated dishes onto the sand to make it quite wet.
Mine never seem to eat during the day, though I have seen them visit the water dishes. They don't always like the daily menu & are "picky" for being a scavanger crustation ~ YUK to carrots & bananas, but YUM to shrimp tails, blueberries, crushed egg shell & raisins.
Most of mine love to change shells, with two of them doing it frequently (At least once a week.) My E's have yet to change shells, even though BOTH of the shells they are in look much to small. Common with the E species I have read. Turbo shells seem to be the most popular amongst the rest of my crew.
My hermies love to climb & "perch" on the sea fan, finger sponges, cork bark, and the coconut hut. A few are bashfull & will "duck & cover" when I walk past the tank, yet three others come right up to the glass to see me.
All in all, I have found that each hermie is different from the rest. Each have their own preferences & personalities, just like the human race!

Speedy used to always hide in this little cardboard hut I made for hem.Cardboard gets soggy when you mist the tank.I have just made a bigger one and she doesn't like it as much!!!She really likes to hide behide this big shell.She's a nice hermit crab!!!
This one hermit crab REALLY like food(not commercial food).
Chevy likes to climb on speedy a lot!!!Speedy occasionally does.
Speedster LOVES to climb!!!She climbs the climbing background a lot!!!
Pinky is another climber.Quite fast(not as fast as Speedy,but faster than Speedster!)
Speedy is a VERY nice hermit crab.She comes out usually when I am only holding her!!!She is VERY fast!!!I have her crawling on the floor right now.She is running away!!!There she goes!!!She has disappeared!!!She really likes this one spot!!!I have to keep on getting her before she disappears for good!She doesn't have any nails and doesn't have

She has disappeared!!!Gotto go find that crab!!!!!See ya

Well of my three E's, I have noticed highest activity levels in the in very late evening/early morning. I don't have a schedule as it's summer break for me, so I am up at all sorts of hours, and can watch them. (yes I've stayed up all night once, paying attention to what they were doing lol)

Usually they are eating, drinking and exploring a bit in the early morning hours, 4-9 AM. During the day the usually hang out underneath the second level (nice shade), on top of the tree decoration, or dug down. (I need a cocohut and/or a nice terracota pot!)

My 3 crabs definitely have distinct personalities.

My smallest one is a female. She is probably the most active, though she is still afraid of me a bit, and tends to stop moving when she sees me, or run away from the side of the tank I am at. She scurries around clumsily, and I can always see her falling off everything (Whoa what did they do with the eye rolling smiley?) She also eats everything, I always see her in the food dish.

My middle sized one is second most active, but just barely. He has a sweet personality, always willing to come out for me, he's not too afraid anymore. He just got rid of his thin Whale's Eye shell for a Dark Cancelleria, similar to the ones my other two have. Even in this new shell, he still refuses to retract fully. He digs very rarely.

And finally my largest crab, also a male. He is very shy, and hides in his shell a lot. He LOVES to dig, and he is constantly dug down, only up usually in the morning to check things out. Another thing I noticed is that he is the only one that regularly stores water in his shell. He frequently "pees" on me, when I handle him, and he has his face buried in the water dishes half the time.

hmm...

i have 18 PPs and one E. The E is ALWAYS active, climbing everywhere, hanging upside down, using the vines as a tightrope, exploring the bottom of the 4 inch deep water basin... I think he never sleeps

The 3 PPs that i had originally, two large ones and a small, were alone for 7 months. With the new additions and the change from a 10 gallon to a 90, the two large PPs, still the biggest, always stick together. One of them absolutely refuses to touch the substrate (half sand, half eco-earth). His shell is one of those odd, elongated pointy ones. He likes to balance himself with one end of his shell on a branch, the other end on the cave, so his legs are dangling in the air. He stays there all day. go figure.

One of the new PPs sits against the glass and.. just stares out of the tank. for days on end. If I go to that side of the tank, he'll move a few inches to follow me, then quickly return to his spot.

The new guys LOVE my fake cave. they manage to squirm, push and shove until they somehow fit 5-6 in there. PLUS they love to drag empty shells in there too.

All of the crabs seem to err poop in the same corner. not that i mind, it makes cleaning easier

My PPs vary from a dark chocolate (my older crabs) to red, to beige, grey and all combinations possible. My E varies from grey to a beautiful blue-green.

So far all have molted in the tank directly. Ive only had surface molts, but the tank has only been set up for a month. In the 10 gallon the two large guys all did surface molts, two each. They shells are 3 inches long to give an idea. The first molt took a month. The second a week. *shrug*

They also love to hide in the cocohuts and cover the entrance with eco-earth.

Oh! last night i saw a crab that i hadn't seen before. i suppose he had been dug down since i adopted the lot of them a month ago

They love grapes and raisins, oats, honey, nuts, fruit, etc. I give them small dried fish that I found in chinatown and keep in the freezer, though i can't really tell if they need any. i also crush some dried krill. When we have shrimp, i freeze the tails, and offer one from time to time. These they love to drag around the tank heh.

I can always tell it's 11Pm; the activity level really picks up, like clockwork.

My crabs are pretty active both during the day, and night. During the day they eat, climb the cocohut, and make a mess out of the crabitat.
During the night, all i could hear is the shells hitting the glass. I've never actually stayed up and see what they do during the night but i can tell they have a lot of fun during the night.
Molting, they lose activity, eat more than usual, and soak in saltwater for a lot.