HCA: Hermit Crab Association

1) How long have you had your crabs and how long have you been caring for this particular crab in distress?Two weeks now for all 32) What size is your tank and what kind of lid do you have?Ten gallons with a mesh lid, I have a moist towel laid over it to keep the humidity stable. A Kritter Keeper for ISO and an empty 5 gallon.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.Tank back side, small rectangle, watts not labeled on it. On KKISO; Small square duck-taped on back, watts not labeled.4) What kind of substrate do you use in your tank and at what depth? Is it dry or damp and sand castle consistency?Coconut fiber (the stuff that comes in bricks, Eco-Earth or something like that)and it's nice and wet.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?Yes, with Instant ocean conditioner, I make the salt water with instant ocean salt6) What do you normally feed your crabs?A mix of dried fruit, coconut, peanuts, seeds, rice, freeze-dried bloodworms and shrimp, and some Cheerios. I tried some carrots but no one seemed to care for them.7) Do you bathe, mist or handle your crabs at all?Yes, I handled all 3 when I got them, I continue to handle Alice and Jack, but since Johnny buried himself, I didn't handle him. The last couple of days I haven't been feeling well and my mom has thrown off my summer break sleep pattern, so I haven't handled Alice and Jack as much. What are the temperature and humidity readings? Please be specific and include high low fluctuations if you're aware of them.The main 10 gallon is around 75 degrees, currently 80% humidity since I re-wet the cover towel less than an hour ago.The isolation tank Johnny is in is around 73-75 degrees with 90% humidity since I misted it with a spray bottle and it's small.Johnny has been buried for two weeks, he buried himself the first day, and I stupidly dug him up on day 2 because I was putting in plastic plants for climbing and scenery and didn't want to accidentally stab him. I had been smelling a fishy smell a couple days ago, so I had assumed that Johnny had decided to dig himself a grave from the stress of moving from the pet store to his new home. Assuming he was dead and wanting to clean up the substrate before I leave for a couple days, I dig him out to discover exoskeleton (which I assumed was actually his dead body) and shell. I set the "remains" aside and fixed up the substrate. I was getting ready to take Johnny's "empty" shell and sanitize it to make it an option for Alice and Jack, only to discover that there was still some "dead" body in it. I got curious, grabbed a ball-point pen and gave the claw a light jab, ONLY TO SEE JOHNNY SCRUNCH UP AND CLENCH HIS CLAW!!! I quickly fixed up the Kritter Keeper I had bought so I could keep an eye on Alice and Jack while I did laundry out in the living room and to let them watch TV (Alice seems to have a thing for Judge Judy!) and set him inside, along with the remaining bits of exoskeleton (two legs and chest), fresh and salt water, and some food. The kritter keeper doesn't have enough substrate to completely bury one's self because I only planned on keeping them in it for only an hour a day.I'm just wondering if I have just doomed Johnny to death?! When I poked him with the pen, his exoskeleton was nice and hard, same hardness as Alice and Jack.UPDATEI just put in a mix of peanut butter and honey for Johnny to see if it will encourage him to live. All of the pet stores around here are ill-equipped alone to care for hermit crabs, so I don't have any calci-sand, no cuttlebone, and no calcium powder. ALSO: the first week I also had a fishy smell, but I attribute that to some shrimp meat I had put in for Alice to eat. I bought Jack a day after I bought Johnny and Alice since Johnny buried himself and Alice was moping around without a friend, so I bought Jack and both Alice and Jack are happy and active climbing all over.

Its never recommended to dig up a burrowed hermitcrab due to the risks of interrupting them mid molt, had the crab still been soft you would have done serious damage to it with the pen so please let me say never ever poke, prod or otherwise contact a suspected molter with anything as the risk of contact injury and even death are extremely high.Because the crab was of sufficient hardness it should be okay as far as that is concerned but the bigger issue is this accidental disturbance might have actually added way more stress to the crab a very vulnerable time which could lead to its untimely demise.I would just leave alone at this point as the more you disturb it the more stressed its becoming.

I'm out of town now, before I left this morning, Johnny had moved and ate both of the leftover molted legs and looked to be working on finishing up the chest piece. I had seen him just chilling yesterday, but quickly withdrew into his shell once he caught site of me. I don't blame him!I have ADD and I've been told I'm very blunt; seemed like just the kind of response I would give!

I'm A.D.D to so no worries, since he's eating well thats a good sign I would just let him be for at least another four to five days as he may decide to dig back down and rest a while which is completely normal behavior.

Well, when I got home, he was just staring longingly at Alice and Jack. I saw that he ate the rest of his exoskeleton, so I went ahead and set him back into the tank with the others. Jack, never having met Johnny before, proceeded to climb all over him and felt him up for a good couple of minutes before going back up the choya wood.Johnny is still a bit shy, mainly sticking to being in the coconut or in the cork tunnel. Yesterday was the first time he came out and looked at me on my hand for a good minute, feeling me up, but then quickly went back into his shell. From what I've read about Equadorians, Johnny's definitely living up to his namesake!He has yet to change shells; Alice switched once, and Jack twice (ending up in Alice's first shell!)Another question I have; has anyone ever had a crab check out a shell for about 5 minutes, and just about to switch shells, before deciding at the last second "nah, I'm good."??? Jack literally had the other shell all set up and positioned ready to slip into, and he was just like, "screw it" and walked away.