HCA: Hermit Crab Association

After almost 2 weeks of being down, Sebastian, my newest PP, finally (temporarily) overcame him PPS. I say temporarily because he did go bury himself again, but this sure is a big step forward. He finally came up, and he let me watch him eat! Later, he even crawled on my hand for the first time ever

I'm proud of my big guy, but seeing him out on my hand made me realize just how unhealthy he is He has absolutely no sensory hairs whatsoever. He is also so pale that he looks like an E, despite his large purple claw. Now, I'm not sure if that's a sign of poor nutrition, or if it's just his coloration. Well, either way, I shall make him healthy!

The hairs sort of get ground down or fall off (i'm not sure which or both) over time after a molt, so it's not that bad. The color will come back if you feed it lots of color enhancing foods. Actually, just giving it a healthy diet should bring color back to it. It was probably malnourished in captivity, but nothing more.
Congrats on seeing the crab again! I have a crab that went down the night after moving them into a new tank, and he came back up the other night It was so exciting to see him again!

True, I had forgotten about the hair thing. Oh, yes. He was definitely malnourished. The conditions he was living in were terrible. His exoskeleton just looks so unhealthy

There are some crabs who are just pale, most of my small PPs are all a very light peachy color, and one of my larger ones is pink even after several molts.
Does it look dull? It may be a sign he's going to molt very soon it gets duller because there is the new exo growing underneath it and pushing on the old one.
The lack of setae (sensory hairs) is totally normal and fine not all crabs are super hairy, and they do come off over time, they just grow back again went they molt
I'm sure after he gets some protien, calcium, fruits and veggies in him he'll color up nicely
Just a quick thing I've noticed, if he has that big bright purple claw, the. It might just be his exo is getting dull. I took in a crab who had been improperly kept for over a year, he was totally white and had a pink claw. I think the claw is where to check for signs of malnourishment since their bodies come in so many colours (not saying he isn't, just not extremely enough to effect his colour)

Well, I've noticed that his claw is really only purple on the front side, while the back side is pale. It could be normal, but my other purple pinchers aren't like that. Maybe he just has a unique coloration?

Sounds normal, PPs come in such a variety of colours, they could be anything but the majority of PPs I've seen are pale on the underside of their claws and legs, it's mostly the big bulky dark ones that have all dark limbs (from what I've seen)

Yeah me too only he's pale everywhere. The most color he has is a tiny bit on red on a part of his leg...and then of course his purple claw. His coloration seems pretty unique. I've never seen a PP like that.