HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I brought home a new guy the other night, and now my largest crab, Misu is dark as the new guy, He looks dark purple all over, almost a rusty purple if that makes sense... the new guy is the same color. Now another one of the mediums is the same, when I use camera flash I can tell they are PP's but otherwise they are so dark I wouldn't know... someone tell me what's going on.

Well, crabs generally change color as they age, molt, or sometimes just somehow end up a different color. I've seen a couple people post on HCA about having their crabs change colors without molting, and over a fairly short period of time.

Rugosus is the most infamous color-changer, ranging from black to very bright pink, and often undergoing very drastic colorchanges with each molt.

Yes, it is normal. Kathy of this forum owns a PP that is extremely purple all over and it is a very unique hermit crab.

It is all just the way it turns out. Foods can help determine color and so can environmental changes. The hermit crab is vey infamous for having different colors throughout each species.

alright just checked on the guys, ALL hermits are dark now...not as dark but still they are darker than before. Is this good or bad, I want to make sure I am feeding them right.

Most of the time the darker the crab, the more carotene and zeaxanthin it gets. These two nutrients are known to enhance color, so it is a good thing. When crabs tend to become extremely pale it usually means they are nutritionally deprived, but not always.

well then I will keep feeding them what I am feeding them... i give them organic baby food sometimes... blueberries and something else, its all natural and stuff, I read all the ingredients and that's really blue/purple and they get worm castings, could that be it?

Well... blueberries help with a blueish color and depending on what kind of baby food it is... anyways. It sounds like your crabs are really healthy.

That's a good thing because they were all pity purchases, lol except my first two, Armani *who I just found out isnt a boy, but is most definately a girl* and Reese... those were the start of trying hermits again... the rest had something wrong, claw missing, wrong size shell, broken leg, broken shell, etc. I have one down molting now, I think, so hopefully he comes up and is nicely colored as well.

Well I hope he has as pretty sounding coloring as the others do when he comes back up.

well about that, i just took apart the tank, it smelled like rotting fish... so I was like crap he died too. I took everything out, slowly, just in case, like one layer at a time. I had forgotten that he could be molting until I was done with my freakout... and get this, he isn't in the tank... like he's not there. I took out one layer or dirt and sand at a time... and was really careful where i thought he was... he's not in the tank. I cant even find his shell. I figured that maybe he got eaten or something because the crabs were digging so loudly i could hear, but no, I can't find him or his shell... I started looking all over the house, but can't find him.

I had the same thing happen to me and unfortunately I found the little crab under my couch during a deep clean of my house LOL anyway he was gone bummer
I have no idea how it got out, maybe my daughter took it out and forgot to put it back although she denies this. I guess I will never know how it got out but was happy to find an answer to my mystery. Hope you can find out what happened to yours too.