HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi guys, I am a new crabber here and I am having a difficult time.I recently bought one new PP hermie from Petsmart. He is in a natural shell. About small in size. When I was bringing him home, and at the shop, he refused to move. I brought him home, gave him a nice bath, checked for mites, etc. He still did not come out of his shell during this time. I set him in the tank (20 gal) with about 6 inches of forest bedding (FB) in the bottom, 80 degrees, 85 percent humidity. I replaced the food with a bit of honey, freeze dried krill pieces, and a fresh organic raspberry then replaced the water in both my distilled, non-chlorinated water dishes and marine salt water dishes. I turned on the light in the tank and misted it lightly to keep humidity up a bit. When I came back upstairs about 20-30 minutes later, her was no where to be found and there was a small burrow/hole in the bedding. I assumed he was distressing and such so I wanted to see if he would come up at night for food or water etc. I lightly pressed down the bedding around the burrow/hole and left it alone until this early afternoon. I noticed it had not changed, and no tracks had been left. I do not know if he is molting, since I know the pet store conditions were not good for molting, and mine are I think (if not, tell me!) so maybe he was ready to molt and now has the good conditions for it? Or is he simply distressing? Or is it PPS? Also, my other hermie I have had for about a month has been quite active lately and digging a lot. Is he getting ready to molt? His coloring is more ashy and dull lately. Is there a reason for this?Thanks in advance for the help!Lexy

He maybe undergoing a molt. Just keep the conditions at optimum and don't disturb it for a few days or weeks. Just be patient and hope for the best. Good luck!

Your newbie is more than likely distressing, your tour is prob ready to molt. You really should have what we call a iso tank isolation tank, it's for newbie crabs to go in for one month to make sure they don't barbarians, sometimes you can miss them even after you bathe and to make sure the newbie didn't have a disease. He has buried now don't dig him up now, ever UN bury a crab

or you can have a friend take care of the other one who won't be molting, if they have crabs that are friendly to yours, so the one who isn't molting is not lonely, and the one who is molting won't get eaten, and then you save money on a new tank.

Sorry you didn't make it very clear to my understanding you just bought this one and it is the only crab you have?If so there is no concern of another finding it. I don't suggest pushing or lightly patting the substrate cuz you could collapse the little pocket underground that they make.Go ahead and continue to set out tiny amounts of food for it (smaller than a pea) and leave it alone is all you can do. If you want us to evaluate your conditions explain everything in detail size of tank, substrate, foods, water, heat humidity ect....

New crabs go through the hardest time, because of recently going through stress.