HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I was just curious because I often see my purple pincher's rubbing their claws and legs together. Were they trying to get off sand that was stuck to their legs or what? They usually do it when they have wet sand stuck to them. What do you guys think?

I always figured it was mine rubbing sand off.

Thanks jmellisa!I was just curious and wanted to know what they were doing.

I hope thats all it is, lol. But thats what it looks like to me. I notice when i watch, they stop like i'm invading privacy or something

I agree they are cleaning themselves. One of my E's takes a bath literally once a night (that I know of), he gets all the way in the salt water bowl and sits there moving one leg/claw at a time until all the sand/EE is off him lol it's funny to watch he is so picky about being clean, my others could really care less.

They preen kind of like birds, and they do it fairly often they have little extra arms by their mouths to pick up food, and theyll use those arms to wipe their eyes, mouthparts, legs, etc and they'll wipe themselves off with their legs and claws they're actually very neat and tidy critters! And they certainly can't let any sand get into their shells, that could injure their abdomens.
Also, it's absolutely adorable

I have never seen my crabs do that! only heard!
Last night one of my crabs chirped - first time - and she looked like she was having fun, running around type thing

RockyGurly wrote:They preen kind of like birds, and they do it fairly often they have little extra arms by their mouths to pick up food, and theyll use those arms to wipe their eyes, mouthparts, legs, etc and they'll wipe themselves off with their legs and claws they're actually very neat and tidy critters! And they certainly can't let any sand get into their shells, that could injure their abdomens.
Also, it's absolutely adorable

Awww, I absolutely love to watch them clean their eyes. Its so cute. It reminds me of cats.

Thank you all for helping answer my question! They do it quite often and I was just curious about what they were really doing. They are quite fascinating creatures.