HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Had another crab change from a painted shell!! As soon as he walked away I took it after what happened last time.....one a crab changed from a painted shell and then another crab took his shell :/

Our first crab that left his painted shell was playing shell swapping today and I got to watch it with my kids!! It was so cool to watch! My kids are having so much fun trying to keep track of the crabs as they change shells! Wonder how long they will be able to keep up? Since we don't have names for them. We called them by the pic on there shell.....now I just started calling them all crabbie

2 more painted shells to get....and one buried this afternoon. Hopefully I can get the last 2 soon!

Just had to share!

How can I figure out what kind of crabs we I have? I just got them at a local pet store. I have seen so many post about different kind of crabs that I have started wondering.

Good riddance!I just had two in painted shells switch two! The paint was chipped and peeling. This site is helpful:

http://coenobitaspecies.com/clypeatus.htm

It's great that they are changing out of their painted shells!Anyways, here is a link to a side-by-side comparison of the different species.
http://www.hermitcrabassociation.com/pages/species.jpg
The sheet is a bit dated, sorry :/

scientific names-common names
C. Rugosus-Ruggy
C. Compresus-Ecuadorian
C. Perlatus-Strawberry
C. Cavipes-I am pretty sure that this one is a viola
C. Brevimanus-Indonesian
C. Clypeatus-Carribean or Purple Pincher

If you got it from a pet store, there's a preeeeetty good chance that they're purple pinchers. Check their big claws. Are they a nice purple and their eyes are round dots? Those are pretty standard signs that it's a PP lol

thats great!!! I bought 3 with painted shells because i felt bad for them (my first 3) and they all changed shells! One dug down in to a molt with a shell so i was scared for her but she dug back up and changed shells right away, so don't worry. you can even put a bunch of shells on the ground and step back a little and one might go shell shopping right in front of you. mine didn't even seem to care i was there!!!

I am pretty sure 3 of the 4 are pp's but one is colored different. I would take a picture but it's the one that is buried. But here is a picture i took a few days ago.



He is a little redder than the others.

Here is one of the others.



And another one.



The last one is camra shy. Will not let me hold him and take his picture but he looks like the last 2. I guess I need to take pictures of them in the new shells.

The 2 that have changed shells are now in shells that look a like so we can't not tell them apart at all. An the plus side my husband is starting to like the crabs he told me not to call them crabbie but to call them all hermie.

I am pretty sure they are they are PP's.

Cassafrass1999 wrote:I am pretty sure they are they are PP's.

That's what I figured....I was just wondering because one was colored a little different. When I bought them I didn't known there were different kinds so I had to know for sure.

They look like pp's to me. Try soaking your extra shells in salt water. As soon as i did that one of mine changed from his.painted shell. I have one more to get into a.natural shell but she is.new.so it.might be a while