HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Has anyone ever done research as to whether or not crabs feel pain? If they do, to what level?

well, I read an article about someone who flakes painted shells off bit by bit until the shell is gone enough that the crab moves out. They said once they stabbed their crab by accident and it moved it's leg like a wince in pain so I would say yes but I don't know how much pain. I saw a black mark on the led and it dropped the leg soon after finding a natural shell...

now, this is a very good question. a crabs exo would not feel pain, or molting would be murder for them. now, i believe the abdomen and under the exo do feel pain. the exo seems basicly a protective suit of armor for the crabs. my guess is when they develop the new exo before molting, any nevs attacked to it somehow detach without pain, but may feel tingly to the crab.

Has anyone ever done research as to whether or not crabs feel pain? If they do, to what level?

Hm.......... you are encouraging those that want to play with fire, so to speak...... I haven't done any kind of formal research, but speculating on the idea.....

What is the definition of pain, but a discomfort to us? We can only speculate how pain is tolerated in other living creatures, but observing how one reacts to stimuli can give us some insight.

If you cut a worm in half, what does it do? Both parts squirm away.

If a cat is injured in a fight, what happens? Upon initial injury, the cat yowls and tries to escape, then tends the wounds.

If a bird is injured or sick, he tries not to let it show. This would be a good sign for predators if he couldn't control it.

I think all living things feel pain, but how they deal with pain and show pain is what I could only speculate. And just like us... too much pain can stress any living creature beyond the point of pain and into the next world beyond this one.

For crabs, I speculate for instance, if he gets dropped in the shell, it's like a "headache" to them. No serious damage, but he may retract into the shell for awhile until the headache goes away. Being dropped too many times or too often may stress the crab too much to the point that headache never goes away for them until he has passed on.

Really good answers, guys. Just one thing..if a crab is dropped it may experience internal injuries.

The reason I asked this question is because I think research in this area would help us to better understand the basic make up of a crab and might teach us things that we can do that would benefit our crabs.

I know research is being done on crabs by various people, but not official studies by a scientific group. Maybe in a few years...

well i would say yea! they probley do, even though they have a hard exo i would think it would be soft inside, doesn't almost all living things feel pain!

They can feel pain, yes. All animals, except humans and elephants, have concepts of pain, but not death. If the exo-skeleton develops to guard a crab, but the crab has no concept of death, why would an exo-skeleton form? To protect from stressful situations that would leave them uncomfortable. Uncomfortable, meaning in pain.

A good example of how you know an animal has a concept of pain, but not death: What do you do when you open your closet to find your brother stabbed to death? You scream. You think, you might be next, and you don't want to die, so you get out of there. Elephants do the same thing -- When they see their own, dead, they flee.

Any other animal, however, will cannibalize, or just treat the dead body as if alive - No real idea that it's dead, or what death is. Even if the tool used to kill is right on the body, still no reaction. Just to lounge.

Also, if they didn't fear pain, why would they retract into their shells, scared? It's been proven that they don't have concepts of death, so what else would drive them to protect themselves? Pain.

There's my 2 cents.

other animals also flee from their own dead too you know

brad873 wrote:other animals also flee from their own dead too you know

But not always because they're dead.

its the same with humans. some people could walk through a room full of death and not be fazed. others would go in the same room and run, thinking the danger was still there. most animals run from either dead because they see that something is able to kill them.

I think all things feel pain to some degree. I think Hermit Crabs must feel pain if something touches their soft abdomen so they must hide it in a mollusk shell, If they didn't why would they hide it?

Pain is just a reaction the mind causes to inform your body something is wrong. It's needed, or else you wouldn't be able to tell if you're dying.

Like if you got your arm chopped off, the way your body would tell you, is to make you feel pain. I think hermit crabs would, too.