HCA: Hermit Crab Association

What do i do? They havent molted and i am nervous that something is wrong. They are healthy, no mites or bad food or dirty water or anything. What could be wrong? There sizes are 6 inches, 3 inches, and 2 inches. Please help me! should i be worried or no???????Here are my answers to these questions:1) How long have you had your crabs and how long have you been caring for this particular crab in distress?I have had my crabs for 2 months.2) What size is your tank and what kind of lid do you have? I have a 25 gallon tank and I have a wire mesh lid with Saran Wrap on three quarters of it.3) What are you using for heat? Please be specific and include fixture type, watt or mat size and where the heat source is mounted.I am using a heating pad. It is a mini. It's only 5 watts but it was the only one in my budget. I'm working on getting a bigger one. It is mounted on the left side wall.4) What kind of substrate do you use in your tank and at what depth? Is it dry or damp and sand castle consistency? I use a mixture of sand and jungle dirt and it is about 5 inches deep and It will be deeper soon for my new jumbo (so probably 6 more inches). It is always sand castle consistency.5) Do you dechlorinate your fresh water and if so, with what product? Do you offer aquarium salt water in addition to fresh water? Again, what product?I do use declorhinated fresh water from water bottles. I don't know what brand of declorhinated to use so I just don't use them. I use instant ocean to make my salt water.6) What do you normally feed your crabs? I normally feed my crabs a variety of things. Some of that variety include apples, shrimp (uncooked), peas, commercial crab food, and grapes.7) Do you bathe, mist or handle your crabs at all?I bathe my hermits once a week, mist them every other day, an hold them every day. What are the temperature and humidity readings? Please be specific and include high low fluctuations if you're aware of them.My temperature is usually around 60 or 70. My humidity is usually around 60 or 70 as well.

Only very teeny crabs will molt as often as every 2 months. A large 6 inch crab may only molt once every 1.5 years. And medium-large 2-3 inch crabs maybe every 6 months to 1-year.That said, I don't recommend the weekly baths. If you do, you need to pay close attention to molt signs, and then place them into ISO during molt. This is because continuing to bathe them when they are near molt can prevent them from molting properly. They need to store a proper saltwater consistency in their shells, and find a place to bury for a while and prep a molting tunnel.If any crab is partially buried or digging holes, it's best to leave them be as they could be pre-molt. I'll only play with crabs which are noticeably up and active at the time.Also, it's best to get that temperature up. Long term sustained temps below 68 can lead to partial hibernation. An occasional fluctuation down to 60 isn't terrible, as long as it's back into the upper-70's most of the time. I'd get a bigger heat pad and side mount it on the lower side of the tank, and/or look into a heat light fixture.

I know you said you very their diet, but what you listed doesn't really address their cellulose need. Have you looked at the safe food list in the Zoae forum part? If not look there for a ton of food suggestions and check out the links associated with it as well. If they are lacking a nutrient it could be preventing them from molting also if I remember correctly.On occasion if they have been in a bad environment/not molted for a long period of time its possible they built up too much of the hormone that inhibits molting meaning they might not be able too or it will take awhile for the hormone level to get low enough to molt.