HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I've had my crabs for about six weeks. At first they seemed to be doing normal crab things - hiding during the day, browsing at night - Then hurricane Sandy hit. They stopped all activity for several days. The temp in their tank dropped to 68 and one died. A heat lamp got them going again. They were even coming out as early as 4:30 or 5:00 in the evening. Even my rarely seen little digger showed up for dinner once! Now, for the past week, they are back to doing nothing and I suspect a second one is dying or dead. After browsing the topics on this forum, I'm having a hard time pinpointing "normal". It seems like three inactive crabs and one never seen crab might indicate that they are happy and relaxed? Or it could mean something is wrong? It's ten o'clock and they are still huddled together doing nothing. How do I read their present behavior? The lamp does lower the humidity but I mist the tank twice a day.

After 6 weeks they should have had time to de stress, but they might need to de stress again after the temp drop. I would just keep the conditions steady and correct, it's pretty much impossible to say what 'normal' is because all crabs have different personalities. The never seen crab might be molting or just digging for fun.

yeah if you don't smell that nasty rotting fish smell i would assume he/she is just molting or destressing and resist the urge to dig him/her up. 68 isn't their ideal temp but i don't know if it's THAT cold. all animals are sensitive to weather events though, they were probably feeling stress from the storm either way. just give them time to adjust again

Thanks for the replies. I caught one climbing a branch and the one I thought was dying waved at me yesterday. I think they are probably OK.

Sounds like things may be returning to "normal". What is normal for one crab isn't always the same. If you watch your crabs long enough you learn what is normal for each. I have some that will come out during the day, others I hardly see, even at night. Some like to hide behind things on the surface, others can always be found in the shell shop sleeping.

I'm pretty sure they "feel" the weather changes so Sandy may have caused them stress, even though they were in a tank. My guys will often mostly all move to high point in the tank when we have a big storm come through the area. I suspect this is instinct to be up higher in a storm.

CrabbyMom33 wrote:I'm pretty sure they "feel" the weather changes so Sandy may have caused them stress, even though they were in a tank. My guys will often mostly all move to high point in the tank when we have a big storm come through the area. I suspect this is instinct to be up higher in a storm.

It sounds like that's really what happened here.

I've had some pretty bad storms come through here where a lot of my crabs would need time to destress again after the storm passed. Some crabs are more sensitive to the weather - I've seen that from my own crabs.

I'm sure they'll be fine. Just keep the conditions and food good and they'll come back to life. The longer you have them, the more you'll see them.