How to pick up a hermit that's out of their shell?

Where we discuss the behavior of our hermit crabs, as in fights, pecking orders, shell swaps, etc. Please post all naked-crab posts in the Emergency forum.
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Fateless
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How to pick up a hermit that's out of their shell?

Post by Fateless » Sun Aug 28, 2011 3:41 am

I've been reading that you bath a hermit crab if he came out of his shell (hasn't re-shelled, but is just out of one and not going into one)
So I've been wondering how do you go about picking up a un-shelled hermit crab?
(This is not happening to me, I just really want to know in case this situation comes up)
Last edited by Fateless on Sun Aug 28, 2011 3:07 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Newish owner of Hermit crabs: Thallium (Lium for short), Char, Ninijae(was peekaboo), & 2 no names
90 gallon crabitat. I'm new to this ^_^

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wodesorel
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Re: How to pick up a hermit out of there shell?

Post by wodesorel » Sun Aug 28, 2011 3:55 am

All the times I had shell-less hermit crabs they were already weak, so I just scooped them up carefully sand and all and then lowered them still on my fingers into dechlorinated fresh water. (I just had to do that on Friday. :( ) If they're moving quick I imagine that you can corral them into a container and carefully move them to a water dish and then back into a clean container.
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SaPen
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Re: How to pick up a hermit that's out of their shell?

Post by SaPen » Sun Aug 28, 2011 8:48 pm

Yeah I ran into this problem when I accidentally shook my little guy out of a huge shell I didn't know he was in. He had landed in the sand so his abdomen was all dirty and I needed to dip him in water. I just put my pointer finger on one side of all of his legs and my thumb on the other side of all of his legs and just squeezed all of his legs together and lifted. I don't know if it would have worked on a larger crab though.
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Eurybia: Female Ecuadorian (2011)
Zephyr: Male Ecuadorian (2012)
Apollo :Male Purple Pincher (Summer 2013)

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