HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Yup, all of my hermit crabs have died one after another. I recently adopted 5 (by recent I mean this May) It was awesome because they came with a humidifier, a nice 150 watt lamp, plants and lots of shells. Also they were all E's which I loved. I split them up because I knew they were going to molt right away after only have 3 inches of sand. I put two on my 20 gal with my original 3, and left the other 3 in a newly designed tank that fit their needs. For about a month they were doing great. Two has molted and the rest were in the process. Then one of the adopteds died. He hadn't shown any signs of of slowing up, they were eating and drinking just fine. Then another did and extremely quickly my entire tank ceased of any claws on glass. My conditions were extremely stable due to the warm summer. My only guess is that the adoptees had a disease prior to adopting them that may have not affected them until later. I was never told how long my adoptee had them. It's really weird, I cleaned out the tanks completely and there isn't any sign of killer bacteria. But for those who are planing on adopting, I strongly suggest having a place for them to hang safely for at least a month.

When something like this happens, it's also important to look at the food and water that was used, since it was most likely used in both enclosures. It could have been an accidental poisoning of some sort, either from affected food or something being off with the water. (It could have even happened from something in the water that came straight from the tap or bottle.) If it had just been your originals, or just the adoptees, I could see it being a disease of some sort being passed from one group to the other, but it's a little odd that all of them were affected.

In any case, I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. That had to have been horrible to go through.

I am also experiencing a mass die off. Started to happen suddenly. Only one crab is left. I am so sorry for your loss. It is horrible to have to go through.

Similar thing happened to our crabs. 6 of our crabs died within the past month. No idea why. All of our conditions were correct, and we were constantly changing the food and water. The rest of our crabs seem to be doing fine, however I still don't know what happened to the others.

Sorry for your loss. It's tough

Can you give us a run-down of the food, water, substrate, etc? We can try and help prevent this from happening again.

Hermit-Yote wrote:Can you give us a run-down of the food, water, substrate, etc? We can try and help prevent this from happening again.

Sure. We use playsand from Home Depot. We always make sure it's damp and not bone dry. We use instant ocean for our salt water and we use tap water for our fresh water but let it sit out for 24 hours along with putting in a dechlorinater. We have a dechlorinater for our salt water as well. The food that we use is all from the hermit crab patch. Shrimp, krill, some treats, crushed up mealworms, fruits and veggies. We always have cuttlebone supplied. That's about it.

How deep is your substrate? How many crabs were in what size tank? What species? Were they new crabs or ones that have had several molts with you? Temperature? Humidity?

I'm sorry for your loss.

CallaLily wrote:How deep is your substrate? How many crabs were in what size tank? What species? Were they new crabs or ones that have had several molts with you? Temperature? Humidity?

I'm sorry for your loss.

We had a 20 gallon and the substrate was about half the height. (So there was plenty) There were about 11 crabs I believe. All of them were relatively small. We lost 3 PP and 3 E's. 3 of them we'd had for awhile and had all molted with us before. The other 3 were relatively new. 2 we had only had for a month. And the other a week. The temperature and humidity both usually read 80.

Overcrowding may have been the problem. Especially with the Es. I personally wouldn't try keeping them (Es) in anything smaller than a 40B.

Skymall007 wrote:I am also experiencing a mass die off. Started to happen suddenly. Only one crab is left. I am so sorry for your loss. It is horrible to have to go through.

Ohmygosh friend…. So sad to come online and see this.

Another cause that probably isn't the reason but worth mentioning.. Crabs like to eat their entire environment, from hemp nets to bark to each other and some of the reptile decorations are dangerous. There's a pine half log at Petsmart that I scratched and sniffed to make sure it was pine and it was which of course make me decide not to get it for my crab. Pine I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, is poisonous to crabs.


Hermit mommy of 10 PP babies: Octavius Flemming, Poseidon, Junior, Matty Pumpkin, Turbo, Aries, Kaylee Frye, Pepper, Flower and Adrian Shephard.

It might have been shell rot.

http://www.hermitcrabparadise.com/crabc ... ellrot.php

I've heard that it can spread to other crabs, so if one of your crabs got it, it might have spread.

I know this was forever and a day ago but I feel bad that I never replied so here we go @Wode You are totally right, those are factors that could have caused this. The girl I adopted them from I believe had 5 or 6 in a 10 gallon, and I assumed they were all going to molt since they had been living in 2 inches of dry sand. I put two of them in the 20 gallon which had 2 other crabs in it, one of which was a crab I had since I started well, crabbing I still think its weird that it happened in two different tanks with the same conditions. next @Skymall, it is, thanks. Its so difficult to hear the scuddling of little crabby legs slowly cease. I hoe you are able to recover @ @Tyke These guys sure are mysteries sometimes, it is incredible however, to see the knowledge of them grow on this site. @ (I'm doing these @ because I'm on quick reply, and I'm afraid if I hit enter, it will enter the post ) @ @Toyt hmm , Well in one I was using mostly play sand, in the other is was half what I assume beach sand because when I was getting it wet for sand castle con density, it smelled like clams. And the other half was made from eco bricks. All mixed with distilled water since I find it easier to moisten sub with that instead of a conditioner. I mean My tanks were pretty solid, Both of them had a few differences besides size, like one had cholla while the other just had oak branches. The thing is, I don't know what for sure happened So I can't exactly tell you want to do to prevent it One thing I could have done was to keep the adoptees and originals separate a little longer, but I had to out their molting needs first since those are so unpredictable. @ @Tyke Yyeah you said it, except I have never bought food from them I used mostly freshly, frozen food XD, and some freeze dried shrimp. @ @Calla , 6 in the 10, and 8 in the 20 I believe, 2 pps and 2 E's in the 20, and 3 E's in the 10, one in the 20. Hades had been with me for over a year and molted I want to at most 5 times, the other PP had maybe 2, and the E's were brand new to me. I could agree with that, I had no idea what species they were and figured it was pointless to ask @ @Korn, yeah Hades at one point would only eat sand when 2 of his only friends in the tank didn't survive a molt. It's actually a little controversial since there has yet to be hard evidence of it being a killer or not, as far as I know, but the general rule is it's better safe than sorry. @ @Clyp It could be, but I'm leaning toward no since I never saw those signs.

So are you going to start over? If you did I'd have to say a bigger tank would be great instead of two smaller ones. Any survivors?


Mommy of 11 PP babies - Poseidon (Sid), Toby, Matty, Junior, Aries, Kaylee, Turbo, Adrian, Freckles, Pepper and Flower. RIP Octavius & Fred