HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I am not sure if this is an emergency or just a case of jitters from a nervous owner. We have 6 crabs in a 29 gallon tank. Temp and humidity are within range and we have added no new crabs into this tank in two or three months. The problem is that we have not seen most of the crabs in a few Weeks. When doing a cleaning my daughter accidentally dug one up. It had passed away. My husband said the smell was awful. (Thank goodness for my winter cold!) My concern is that the tank itself did not smell any different. Now that we have had our first death (the only one in 10 months) we are concerned that the others may have passed too and we just do not know it. My daughter, age 8, is terrified that they are all gone.
She also thinks that they may be jealous because we adopted 8 crabs in another 30 gallon tank last week. ALL of these crabs are out and active. We tried the smoothing out the sand trick, but see no tracks. PLEASE offer some advice as we can only stare at the empty tank and worry.

You could be having a mass molt. How big are they? I wouldn't go digging just yet, depending on how big they are.

They are a variety of sizes from tiny too the size of a golf ball. We are concerned because of finding the one crab had died and although it did smell awful when we dug it up - the tank itself had no unusual smell at all. We have had two successful molts ( one took seven weeks and was the size of a golf ball) It is hard to see no movement in the tank at all. I have even gotten up at 2 AM to see if they are out and about.

They could be molting or destressing, if they didn't do that when you got them. Several of mine will go under for weeks at a time & then pop back up like nothing happened. They can die underground & I've never gotten the smell when they did that. The littlest ones would molt very frequently & perhaps the larger ones need to catch up on molts. Some of them put off molting due to bad conditions. I would continue to provide at least a bit of food & H2O for them just in case one comes up. I'm guessing none of them has provided you w/a window. Frustrating little critters. It's up to you in the end, but I'd try to be patient a bit longer. Keep us posted. Sending positive vibes your way. [smilie=cheer.gif] [smilie=banana.gif]

Thanks so much for the encouragement. I will be patient for as long as I can. The tank does not smell any different than usual. It is ironic that they chose now to go under. Perhaps Sarah is right and they are jealous and making us worry so that we do not forget that they were here first.

We will let you know what happens and thanks again!

Valerie and Sarah

I seem to have a mass molt every August/September and then again in February/March. I have noticed over the past week or so, that several of mine are mysteriously missing. I think it has begun.

When I only had 12 crabs (yes, way back when!), I once had TEN of the twelve down molting. I was scared to death! But all ten eventually resurfaced!

I am sorry for your loss, but I doubt that the rest of your crabs are dead. You are most likely experiencing a mass molt!