How long have you kept a single crab?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 3:16 pm

I am curious as to how long some of you have kept a single hermit crab alive. I'm concerned that the life expectancy of crabs in captivity is quite short.Thanks. Larry in Illinois

Jedediah · Post by **Jedediah** » Sat Nov 19, 2005 7:57 pm

Carol of Crabworks has two crabs, Jon and Kate, that have lived for almost 30 years in captivity, since 1976.http://www.geocities.com/hermit_crabs/carol/Many crabs die soon after purchase because all the stress from harvesting, shipping and awful pet shops was too much for them, but if you get everything right and the crabs survive the first three months, you have a good chance that they are around for quite some time.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Nov 20, 2005 1:10 pm

My original crabs I've had for a year and a half now, and all of the others I have have lived in captivity for up to 3 years (I adopted them from different crabbers who could no longer keep them). Their natural life spans seem to be somewhere in the vicinity of 50 years or more, so I'm hoping to have my guys for many, many years to come. Hermit crabs are definitely NOT a "throwaway" or short term pet. If you're not prepared to make the commitment to taking care of them for years, then you should please reconsider having them as pets.

Willow · Post by **Willow** » Tue Nov 22, 2005 4:20 pm

There's a member of this forum (she used to be very active, I think she still drops in now and then), Laralla, who had one hermie for 9 years.

TheGreyRonin · Post by **TheGreyRonin** » Wed Nov 23, 2005 7:17 pm

Shorty is my longest-lived crab, currently owned for about a year and a half. Wish I'd had internet and this site a decade or so ago...

Jedediah · Post by **Jedediah** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 3:26 am

I've owned my oldest crabs for a bit more than three years now.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 3:53 am

Francais is my oldest and first crab I ever got. I've had him for about 10 years now!

Willow · Post by **Willow** » Thu Nov 24, 2005 1:20 pm

It does seem as though they tend to die for no visible reason, but maybe they do that in the wild, too. We really don't know how many in the wild die from bad moults, etc.The longest I have had a crab is about 3 years.

Jedediah · Post by **Jedediah** » Fri Nov 25, 2005 4:59 am

Some do live longer, otherwise we wouldn't be getting Jumbo crabs. But a lot of them much earlier, either from a bad molt, disease or because of predators.You can count the rings at the base of the antennas of a dead crab, but this isn't reliable since they can re-grow antennas, too.