HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Why would my brother adopt the crabs from me and then decide not to follow the advice I sent him, only to get rid of them last year because they were “stinking” too bad? He seemed really excited about adopting them from me but then, once I gave them to him, he lost interest in them after having them a couple of months. All I got last year was a picture to prove to me they were “happy” in the set up. I was also told “one walks around while the other one sits in a corner and that he didn’t want to talk about it.”
I’m beginning to feel guilty about giving them to someone who didn’t care what the requirements were. I was told he gave them to a “couple of kids”. So now I have no idea if they’re dead or alive, or even if the people he gave them to are caring for them properly. I did not want to ask him to join the Hermit Crab Association for fear that he would not listen to you guys either. I suspect he thought they were too much work and didn’t want to add the extra sand to make it “easier” to see them and eventually he got bored watching them because all they did was “sit there.”
I wish people would quit thinking hermit crabs are easy to care for and don’t require a lot of space and a lot of substrate. Now, I would like to advocate against the sale of hermit crabs in pet stores because this is what happens when they end up in the pet trade. They are sold to people who do not bother to do the research and think all they need is a twenty gallon tank and an inch of sand.

Ugh, makes me sad and mad too. And the pet stores even give pamphlets and stuff with horrible information. They also sell teeny tiny cages with super bad humidity. And in the pet store, they are crammed into one tiny cage thing, with like 1 inch of completely dried out eco earth. So sad. No wonder most of them have missing limbs from fighting for space. When I got my hermit crab I got them from the pet store actually to save them from it. I get that I may have been supporting the trade a little bit, but I wanted to rescue them. I'm with you on advocating against pet stores selling hermit crabs.

And then, once they are sold, many people don't do their research, as you said. Often, they have too low of substrate, humidity, and temperature, pretty close to the three most important things in caring for hermit crabs! They also lots of times have only one or two shells, that are often painted and are way too big and way too small and are weird shaped. They are mistreated and slowly die. Meanwhile, the owner gets bored of them.

Let's stop the trade! Breaks my heart

I agree, stop the trade! This past week I wrote the White House and my governor about stopping the sale of land hermit crabs. If all of us wrote the leaders in our states and also wrote the white house it would get attention and we could legislation passed to stop the sale of hermit crabs .


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jonathon1989 wrote:I agree, stop the trade! This past week I wrote the White House and my governor about stopping the sale of land hermit crabs. If all of us wrote the leaders in our states and also wrote the white house it would get attention and we could legislation passed to stop the sale of hermit crabs .


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My son and I would like to do that as well! How did you go about that, Jonathon? What’s the address? We’ll send a couple letters too!


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crabbycasey wrote: My son and I would like to do that as well! How did you go about that, Jonathon? What’s the address? We’ll send a couple letters too!


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Im going to create a pettion to the US FIsh and Wildlife Service. In addition I am reaching out to my local state leaders.


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