HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Are Marine Hermit Crabs roughly the same anatomy wise as Terrestrial Hermit Crabs? Can scientists safely remove large marine hermit crabs from their shells? I can't find any information about how they do it, just that they do. The information I was reading said that marine hermit crab weight most accurately predicted shell size selection.


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I'm not sure I'm understanding. Why would you want to remove a hermit from its shell?

When they change shells they probably weigh them or before they add the shells. Once the crabs switches - if it does - then they would weigh the shell (with crab this time) and note the difference!
Unless they remove them by killing or close to killing them, they will not move and would die then split with their shells...

I was reading an article about a teacher that went on a marine science trip in the Gulf of Mexico. One of her pictures was of a giant marine hermit crab that they removed from his shell to weigh. After it looks like they reshelled him and put him back. Then I read some educational report by a college student about marine hermit crabs and weight and it looks like he did the same thing, removed their shells, weighed them and then put them in smaller shells to see what would happen. The thesis was hc weight more accurately determined shell choice than anything else. So I'm trying to figure out whether they are half killing the hermits in the name of research. Or if marine hc's are easier to remove. Or if there is a less invasive way to remove their shells. Or????

For the record I am not personally interested in removing anyone's shell, I'm just trying to figure out how these particular scientists are doing it and whether it's harming the crab. I could find nothing about the actual process of removing the shell. Maybe there's some sort of chemical or something they use to paralyze them first?


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If the crabs are still alive, they're finding some way to anesthetize them to remove them - either chemically or with cold - both of which can have long term effects. Most studies I've seen involve killing the crab. If you're reading the published paper they'll give the exact method used. When you're reading a newspaper or blog article, they usually gloss over that part.

I couldn't find the actual paper but blogs. Thanks Wode.


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I don't think that's true that it would kill them, they remove wild crabs from natural shells and shove them into decorated shells for selling for a higher price than crabs in natural shells. Not that I support or recommend this. In fact, a bunch of my adopted crabs came from a woman who used them as an art project, she glued things into their shells. And the silly things won't leave their decorated shells for the natural shells I provided. I offered a huge assortment but many still won't change over. Every time one discards a decorated one, I quickly grab it and throw it out before another grabs it.

lostnotfound wrote:I don't think that's true that it would kill them, they remove wild crabs from natural shells and shove them into decorated shells for selling for a higher price than crabs in natural shells. Not that I support or recommend this. In fact, a bunch of my adopted crabs came from a woman who used them as an art project, she glued things into their shells. And the silly things won't leave their decorated shells for the natural shells I provided. I offered a huge assortment but many still won't change over. Every time one discards a decorated one, I quickly grab it and throw it out before another grabs it.

1. All hermit crabs are wild. They do not breed in captivity. Only a handful of people in the world have managed; and out of thousands of eggs, less than a dozen live long enough to make it to micro shell stage.

2. They gas crabs, heat their shells, or chill them until they can remove them in order to put them in painted shells. A hermit crab would rather be ripped in half than leave it's shell, so yes-forcing them to change shells is harmful and the manner in which it's done causes injury or death.

For scientific study there is no reason to keep them alive - they aren't going to fuss with keeping them since they'll have to prove they were treated humanely the entire time and it falls intp a different and much more stringent category of oversight. The scientific community permits scientist to quickly dispatch animals in order to study them. It's one of those disturbing little details no one ever likes to talk about, but it made national headlines after a researcher euthanized a rare bird a few months ago in the name of science. To get the weight, gender, age or determine species of hermit crab, they will usually have been killed to save time and paperwork, and often preserved so there is a physical body to refer back to if there are any questions. And yes, this is done to a lot of species.

Are there any links to these research papers, I would love to read them.


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wodesorel wrote:For scientific study there is no reason to keep them alive - they aren't going to fuss with keeping them since they'll have to prove they were treated humanely the entire time and it falls intp a different and much more stringent category of oversight. The scientific community permits scientist to quickly dispatch animals in order to study them. It's one of those disturbing little details no one ever likes to talk about, but it made national headlines after a researcher euthanized a rare bird a few months ago in the name of science. To get the weight, gender, age or determine species of hermit crab, they will usually have been killed to save time and paperwork, and often preserved so there is a physical body to refer back to if there are any questions. And yes, this is done to a lot of species.

That's incredibly sad and makes me hate humans even more