HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Good morning, everyone!

It has recently been brought to my attention that Ecuadorian crabs are quite special in their space requirements and do not follow the standard "gallons of space per crab" formula; specifically, I've learned that they need at least 40 gallons to thrive. To anyone who helped point this out to me, thank you very much - I'm happy I was made aware of this sooner rather than later. To address this, I have been searching for a larger tank in which to house them. I do have a question, though - how many gallons of space does each E need? For instance, how many Es could thrive in a 55 gallon tank? Thank you in advance for any replies!

I'm sure an expert will chime in, but I have a 55, and just added 4 E's to my 5-7 PP's. 2 of the E's are small, 1 medium and 1 large. And I wouldn't add another one.

You will absolutely LOVE them , though! They are ALWAYS awake, walking around, eating, splashing in the pools, and generally causing mayhem! They are little devils!
But well worth the trouble!

Excellent, thanks for the reply! It's good to know that your setup is working well; I found a used 55 gallon for sale in my area and that would be a good option if I can't find anything else.

One note, with the E's you don't want to have less than 10" of substrate. They are known for being very active diggers and you need the substrate space for molting.

I was down to only three E's in my 55 gallon with 12 inches of substrate. Over the course of about a year they ate their other 8 tank mates at the rate of nearly one per month. It really comes down to the individual crabs on if they can do well in a group.

Thank you, everyone! I'll make sure to put down 10 inches of substrate space for them. What's nice is that with a 55 gallon tank, that still leaves me roughly 10 inches of vertical space for climbing structures and other decorations. I'm sure they'll love it!

Update: I found a beautiful 90-gallon bowfront aquarium for them, and I'm picking it up on Friday! I'm sure they'll be extra happy with that! Thanks for sharing your knowledge, everyone!

Yay upgrade!!!

I read some stuff, and now I can't remember who or where it was on HCA, about Es needing higher heat and humidity 85/85 and possibly UVA/B light and those conditions seemed to minimize aggression by the Es.


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Thanks aldebaron! Maybe that's why my Es haven't ever been aggressive; I have always put them under UV spectrum lighting, just because I used to keep reptiles and remembered that it was essential for maintenence of calcium and vitamin D levels in the body. Thought that perhaps crabs might benefit in some form from it as well. I'll definitely keep doing that then!

I really think it comes down to the individual crabs or possibly the location they're collected from. Some of our very experienced crabbers here who have provided proper space, conditions, and UVB/vit D have still had problems with aggression. At this point it has not been completely figured out... at least as far as I've read.

Wow, they certainly are mysterious little guys, aren't they? Hopefully we'll figure 'em out someday.

Larger males seem to give more grief than the females as well. But not all of them!

Thank you, that's good to know! (I'm watching you, Apollo! ) Haha

I have a 40g with 2 pps and 2 Es and both Es are basically the same size color and shell but their personalities are opposite and i can just tell that one needs twice as much space as the other.

ErikRasmussen wrote:I have a 40g with 2 pps and 2 Es and both Es are basically the same size color and shell but their personalities are opposite and i can just tell that one needs twice as much space as the other.

YES! I have 1 E who is very chill and awesome. I have 2 Es that act like meerkats. They leave holes from which they pop in and out of. They also wear matching shells, so they have this teleportation/doppleganger bit that gets exhausting to keep track of. They are AMPED and i can only imagine what type of underground shenanigans they'd be up to. I feel like each of them require a square foot at a time, due to their speed. They also spend the most time underground. The likelihood that they'll run into a molter seems extremely high. I have even considered shoving dividers down into the sub to slow them down and give molters some cover.


Crabbers unite!!!