HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I purchased four hermit crabs about a month ago, all about the size of a quarter. One died shortly after I arrived home, so I think he must have been overly stressed or sick. They were housed on reptile carpet at the pet store. The terrarium I have them in is 1/3 sand (dampened with brackish water, the water pools slightly over the top of it), 1/3 peat moss , and one third of the dampened reptile bark, the name is slipping my mind. They have a large shallow dish of fresh conditioned water with several sea sponges in it, a food bowl (and are fed only food that is free of ethoxyquin, as well as occasional fresh fruit), a climbing branch, and a piece of driftwood in the pool of brackish water running up to the moss in case they cant crawl out easily. One side has an under tank heater on it as well as well as two miniature red heat bulbs and the temperature is consistently between 77 - 80 during the day. I turn off one bulb at night to provide a completely cool side of the tank. One of the three remaining crabs buried himself in the wood chips the first day. The other two were fine for a week or two, eating well and climbing and exploring (though still timid), and one switched into a different shell that I'd put in there for them. Then one of the two remaining also burrowed into the wood chips, seemingly right on top of the first one. The last one stayed out for another week or so until doing the same thing. I have been continuing with turning the light off above where they are burrowed every night. They chose the opposite side of the tank as the heat lamp. I considered that they were too warm, but before going under they would climb up the climbing branch up getting closer to the red bulb. I also have read that there is a period of de-stressing where they burrow for a period of time, I just thought it was strange that they all waited until different times to go, which makes me think there is an issue with the husbandry. Of course they could possibly be molting, but again all three of them at once made that seem odd to me, but I am by no means an experienced hermit crab keeper. The chips are staying damp and seem to hold heat well. Is this normal behavior, and what should be my next courses of action? Thanks!

First let me welcome you to the forums here at LHC.com on behalf of the staff and the family.Secondly the substrate needs to be either eco-earth or regular white play sand or a mixture of the two as anything else such as wood chips or mulch will not hold up for tunneling purposes and can lead to the hermitcrabs either attempting a surface molt or just not molting at all.The substrate should ideally be a minimum of six inches for smaller hermits and no less than eight for specimens golfball size and larger this is to allow adeqaute overhead space for when the hermitcrab decided to carve out a molting pocket otherwise the pocket may be to shallow which could cause molt deformities and even death.You need to remove the sponges from the water asap as hermitcrabs can not physically drink from sponges by sucking as they have no lips they have to draw their water into their mouths via capilary action which can't happen on a sponge.Sponges are notorious breeding grounds for really harmful strains of bacteria and can grow these strains in as little as twenty four hours after being submerged in water so if your using the sponges to prevent smaller hermits from drowning you can easily accomplish this by using river stones, aquarium gravle or even hemp netting draped over the side which are much cleaner and safer alternatives.Is your uth pad mounted underneath the enclosure if it is you'll need to unplug it immediately as bottom mounting is the worst and most dangerous way of using a uth pad on a hermitcrab enclousre.Because of the dampness and thickness of the substrate required by hermitcrabs the substrate effectively traps the heat on the bottom where it continually builds up to dangerous levels of 100 degrees or more causing the pane of glass to expand dangerously which results in burrowed or molting hermits dieing from overheating and if any water should make it way to the bottom suddenly the expanding glass will suddenly try to retract which will end in a shattering of the glass spilling out the substrate and the inhabitants.Always side or back mount uth pads but as this is a less effective means of using the pad you'll need to choose a pad rated for at least three times the size of the enclosure you want to use it on so for a ten gallon you'd need a pad rated for a thrity gallon to get the right temp boost.What is the size of the enclosure you have?What are you using for a lid and do you know what the humidity levels are in your enclosure?Newly purchased hermitcrabs will often times go straight down as soon as you get them home and will stay down for days to weeks so this is completely normal behavior.It's recommended to iso new purchases for a minimum of four weeks where you go completely hands off only disturbing them to change out food and water as they need this time to reverse the molt inhibiting hormone thats built up in their system, secrete the molt inducing hormone and then molt not to mention just plain out de-stress from all of the caos that they've been through to get to us.Around half of newly purchased hermits will die in the first few days of being with us from PPS or post purchase stress which stems back to the mistreatment and neglect they recieved from the harvester and the store over the course of several weeks to months before you got them.I'll let you digest this bit and then either I or someone else will be back in touch with you.

Welcome! I think crabber did a wonderful job getting you started. Please post any other questions or problems your having and like he said one of us will be glad to assist you further. On the substrate whichever you use the Eco Earth(coconut fiber) or regular play sand needs to be moist but not soaking wet it should be sand castle consistency/moldable so the tunnels will hold up.