HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Possibly. I got it in one of the big ten dollar Walmart packs, so I really don't know what it is exactly. They seem to work well for medium to large Es, though, so if anyone's bought a bag of shells from Walmart...

This has been more or less my experience, too. I've got one difference, though - my Es seem to love rapa shells. Maybe it's a different subspecies, since I do have a rapa bursa that looks exactly like the one pictured that no one has changed into. The shells are smaller and golden-brown with a smoot...

Mine are getting a crab omelet - scrambled egg with the eggshell crushed and mixed in along with spinach and dried mysis shrimp, cooked and topped with EVOO. And a piece of banana topped with honey.

I don't remember anything being terribly wrong with his eyes before the molt, but I don't know. I'm just telling myself that it's good that he's a pet hermit crab - no worries about running from seagulls.

He's a pretty small crab, so hopefully he'll molt soon and get better.

So, okay, I swear there's something wrong with me because I can't seem to keep my PPs healthy and happy. This time around it's James, who just came up from a molt missing most of his eyes. He has the wider part, but the little eyes themselves are tiny little dots at the very ends. I know they can re...

I've got PPs and Es cohabitating, but my PPs slowly died off for some reason (I think the same was too wet and it messed up their molting. I didn't find any evidence than the Es were attacking them during a molt.) They don't get along quite as well, since the PPs seem to be much less active than the...

So my boyfriend has a saltwater setup and was wondering what his protein skimmer was pulling out. I, intrepid Internet delver, went out to find out. My initial reaction to one of my findings was to have a small fit. Now, mind you, it's only one study and I know that having only a single source isn't...

this is really rather interesting to me. i've never tried to feed my crabs specific foods to increase their colors, but it seems like all my PPs end up an almost black color. they've got several varieties of wood to climb on (bad me, i don't really know what the heck they have. i think they have som...

they were pretty good, though i had expected them to be sweet potatoes and was sorely disappointed. as regular eating potatoes, they have a rather softer texture. i had actually put in a smaller piece that was nothing but a small strip of skin at the end of the night. they've gotten more since then,...

i haven't tried the normal varieties, but my parents picked up these "blue" potatoes (they're more purple-black, but after googling purple potatoes and not getting the right kind, i found they're officially called blue potatoes. they're like russet potatoes with purple skin and dark purple flesh) an...

most of my crabs will come out pretty quickly, but baird...baird is impossible. i've left him out for half an hour without a single twitch. he doesn't snap into his shell until i open the tank, but when he does, he refuses to come out...actually, i don't really know what gender "he" is...

i actually have trouble getting my crabs to eat at all, so at least you know yours aren't starving themselves xD it's actually very strange - i feed them the recommended varied diet - fruits, veggies, proteins of all sorts - and i normally don't see them even near the food dish. my tinies, who are i...

:/ having actually read the entire original post now...i have to say that i don't believe there are truly beginner hermit crabs. there's just so much misinformation that even if the parents are taking care of the crabs...well, anyway, here's my rating assuming that the kids/parents have decent infor...

i've honestly found Es to be more sturdy than PPs. it seems like i keep losing PPs to molts, while the Es just pop down, molt, and pop right back up again. they also seem to be better in suboptimal temperatures. the heater on the side of my tank didn't keep them nearly warm enough, but there was alw...

jennie's given the basic fixes for most hermit crab bullying. if those don't work (you may want to iso him with proteins anyway), you may have to implement time-out. take the bully out and put him in iso for a half hour to a hour, then put him back in. if he continues to bully the smaller crab, incr...