My update

[Keg]

My Purple Pincher is delirious. She is climbing around. Not just exploring, but dangling upside down on branches just for fun. Sometimes she is just sitting there gazing at me so I go over to look and she's bright-eyed and waving four antenae/ules at me. "You're doing something right," she seems to be saying.Well. last year she was miserable. She spent the year docked in one spot. She only got up to eat once every day or so.The main thing I'm doing different is that I am not covering the tank now. She makes up for the dryness by filling her shell with water from the dish (I think). Also, alot more light gets into the tank without a screen. I think what happened here is that even though there was alot of humidity with the top on, there wasn't enough evaporation taking place due to low air circulation. The crab needs for water to evaporate from its gills in order to extract oxygen from it. (Just my guess).The humidity is close to 80 directly on the sand due to high evaporation rate. But now she spends alot of time climbing up in the branches. Even right now, in the afternoon, she's up and about. She seems comforted by the ability to climb two feet above the top of the tank on the highest branch. The room humidity is witheringly dry here in Arizona but there she is. And she's not obsessivesly attempting to escape - she goes up there to rest.At this moment, she is attempting to knock a snail shell off a branch. This is not what I would exect a distressed crab to do. I would put more up, but she does NOT like me reaching in the tank while she can see it. She'll tense up violently so I don't.Another thing I've noticed is that she acts distressed when I mist. Last year, no matter how indirectly I did it, she didn't like it. She would wake up from her preferred spot and go rest somewhere else. After I stopped misting, she went back to her favorite spot. And when she met me at the glass, it seemed like she was glaring. The antennas weren't showing. One time she even lunged at me. Gasp. I get it. Not more misting. I believe it changes the humidity too fast for her to compensate. Whatever...she doesn't want it.She's around 11 years old now and picking up speed.My other crab Hellboy, seems healthy but not happy. He is rarely seen outside the cave. I'll try adding some more hiding spots. Maybe that will work. If not, he may be happier with someone else. Someone who lives far, far away from the big red monster in the other crabitat.

[Laurie LeAnn]

crabs need day light to thrive, some kind of light to simulate day light, then they need the night cycle { lights out } or use a moon glow light.some crabs don't climb for a long time and then boob they are everywhere if given things to climb on and some are picky as to what they will climb to, mine will not climb nets! they get a claw in it and then back down.the other crab could be just coming out at night and at certain times for short periods, do his bees wax and back in he goes. if you use sand smooth it out before you go to bed in front of where he is at and then in the a.m. you will know if he has come out. also make sure he is getting a good diet like pop corn, cuttle bone, eggs, worm castings, nuts..I have one crab that will run if i mist from above and the others don't care, they just sit there. They have gotten use to me being in the tank. I am one of those who don't play with their crabs or handle them, unless I have to. never had a crab lunge at me had one chirp at me, he was MAD!

[Crabber85]

@Keg, you've got some interesting observations to tell about.lolI have never had a hermitcrab lunge at me as long as I've been doing this so that is quite a rare thing to have happened to you.In the wild hermitcrabs don't have a stable humidity it actually varies sometimes wildly due to weather conditions and is never the same year round.A wild hermitcrab can travel more than ten miles in a day scavenging for food, water and shelter and as is the case for PP's they tend to stay in-land by as much a five miles from the ocean only going to the edge of the sea to breed and look for better fitting shells.The humidity right on the beach is between 90 and 100% but the further in-land you go the humidity level drops and by the time you get to the furthest edge of the PP's in-land range the humidity can be as low as seventy percent and depending on wind conditions even lower than that.PP's spend most of their time in the forests near the beach either looking for food or sleeping in the trees and the humidity can vary by five, ten or even fifteen percent + or - depending on how far in-land or close to the ocean they travel so they have adapted to deal with less than perfect humidity levels by carrying water in their shell which evaporates allowing them to stay cool and breath properly for days at the time.So it's no wonder your litle girl likes being high up even if it means being in drier air and in most situations the hermitcrab will remove itself from the drier air when it feels the need provided that it has an alternative option like going back into the enclosure where the humidity level is a bit more comfortable.

[Theodora]

hm... I am going to go add some tall climbing things to my tank. Because I don`t have that much in there to climb....

[kuza]

I have a very aggressive E that lunges at me against the glass, and will actively go for my hand near the glass. I could probably film it tomorrow since I can make her do it just doing the hand feeler thing at the glass. This crab gives all other crabs a hard time even though she's never gone all out crazy yet.And my crabs will often knock each other off high places, it's almost like they make a game of it. I've seen my bigger crabs literally pull the smaller crabs off their perch and knock them to the ground instead of just going around them.

[Theodora]

lolz