HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I have two purple pinchers in a twenty gallon tank and was wondering, I keep hearing people say three is a minimum. Should I get a third? These guys are medium according to the bullseye size chart so I think there's enough space, they seem fine. Please let me know, I don't want them to be unhappy.

Two is fine! Carol Ormes, who had the longest lived hermit crabs in captivity, had only two for 34 years.

With most members here, the question isn't usually is 2 enough, but how many more can they fit lol! as long as a hermit crab has a friend, you won't have any troubles

two is definitely fine...and you are strong willed if you can stop there!

annopia

Whew, good. Now, would it be okay to put aother one in there?

quimbycub wrote:Whew, good. Now, would it be okay to put aother one in there?

definitely! you could fit at least two or three more in there, provided they're not jumbos .

annopia

Cool. Thank you. I think I'll stick to two for now, but I'm glad to know I could get another if I decide to.

hehe I'd be surprised if you stuck with two, I was originally only going to have two of them..... three more crabs later. XD

Lasuna wrote:hehe I'd be surprised if you stuck with two, I was originally only going to have two of them..... three more crabs later. XD

I originally had one. Now I have two. Soon I'll have three...I'LL NEVER STOP!

Personally I like keeping them in groups. Someone I adopted four from had two that always tend to hang out together though (I notice this here as well), so I'm sure a pair is fine as long as they get along well.

You know, I've never noticed my guys actually hang out in groups Invert. They're scattered throughout the tank. Except sometimes Anubis and Horus, when Anubis isn't skulking in the hut, and Horus actually feels like going into the hut. XD

Mine seem to hang out together 50% of the time. That seems healthy. I'm a little worried that come shell change time they may fight because they are EXACTLY the same size, and I've heard that leads to shell fights. I should be able to avoid this by providing a ton of empties, right?

some of mine will hang out on top of molters looking all sad because they miss their buddy.

You should always have a large number of shells that are the same size as, slightly smaller than, or slightly larger any one of your crabs. If the crabs are the same size, than you should get even more shells of around those sizes, or else if they both find the same shell to be ideal, they may fight. Also, it is not a bad idea to have plenty of shells outside of the crabitat as well. This way, you can switch them out every now and then to give the crabs a chance to look at new shells, as well as letting you clean the ones that werein the tank.

As long as you have enough shells, it should be ok. Two of my PPs are the same size, and once they changed into each others shells. So for a day I was all excited that Sebastian was so active (he never comes out during the day)..but then I realized it was just Guda, who had changed into Sebastian's old shell