HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Carl came up just now all bright and shiny new. he's a magnificent red straw. Thanks so much to the wonderful crabbers who have posted such wonderful info. I've made sure to keep the humidity at 80-85% and temp around 78-82 (having trouble all of the sudden keeping it steady)
Patience is hard to come by and yet the key to keeping these little buggers!
Carl was buried for 4 weeks along with two others who are still down!
He's so much brighter than before which leads me to conclude we have a successful molt. He's nibbling on the calci sand, and there's shrimp in the dish. I just placed a dab of honey in there to see if he likes it. I hope he finds the new shells we put in there while he was under (there's been some re-modeling going on)
I'm so happy I have a lump in my throat!
going to sneak up and try to take pics, he hides when he sees us
Thanks all!!

Congrats its always really nice to see them come back up looking all good

Congrats!! It's always a happy time when they come back up!

Yay! I'm so happy Carl is back up Is everyone settling in nicely?

Everyone is doing nicely I think. The tiny ones are having a grand time climbing and walking around the screen ceiling (plexi over that). Ron loves the moss pit I installed. I peeked in after hours last night and two were in the moss pit having feeler session. all three tinys have very sharp "feet" I'm guessing no immediate need to molt?
But lots of re-decorating since Carl went down. he seemed a little slow at first. I put a bit of honey in a feeding shell and he went to town with that. He's climbing the background and hangin out in the plants acting like a crab should so i think we have a success story. There's lots of new shells for him shop but I haven't seen him check any out yet.
So we still have 3 straws underground -Steve disappeared four days ago when I installed new moss pit. the other two have been down just over 4 weeks. Crossing fingers they're doing ok but Carl has renewed my confidence so I'm cool with waiting now.

still a little shy but here's Carl sitting in the shell shop

Carl's adorable! congrats on the molt!

Thanks!
He spent all day in the shell shop inspecting each and every shell (about 30) but didn't change. Either he's comfy or picky. He threw 3 into the water dish!

He might be trying to wash them (dirty shells!) Or just playing, mine do some pretty whacko stuff with their shells sometimes.
He is absolutely adorable! Congrats!

Thanks!
A new question regarding his molt. He has a couple of areas on his leg that seem to be absent of color. I put in some of the red color enhancing food from hermit crab patch. will that correct itself, is it even a problem?

Oh! I'm sorry, I thought you knew! Strawberries will have white stripes on their legs when they're juviniles, but they will eventually grow out of them as they get bigger Totally normal! And so pretty!

Oh excellent! thanks for that! and no, I know nothing about these little critters, other than what I can find either here or the net.

How big is Carl? He must be a little guy if he's a juvinile My only straw Betelgeuse is pretty big, and well outgrown his stripes

Carl is small. In fact he's the smallest of the four straws we picked up. I need to get a pic of him next to something for perspective. his current shell has maybe 13/16 opening?