HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hermits can absorb moisture from things like moist dirt via capillary action, but I haven't seen anything where they can do so with salts to regulate their shell water salinity levels. So food wise it would likely be fine, and even for basic hydration it would probably work (depending on actual ingr...

Hi. You never gave a location. Even a rough idea of where you are or can meet can help with matching you to a local adopter!

There's always the chance for a fluke injury from falling, but I can tell you this has happened to multiple crabs of mine over the years in similar circumstances and they were always fine.

I can delete this for you if you want. I thought you had posted the apology about the fact that there was a glitch and this got posted twice, or the other post you edited to say you wanted it deleted. I cleaned those up as it would have just caused more confusion.

There were followup questions asked! And it was never removed or deleted

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I see two possible issues after googling a bit on on this species. Molting. There's some posts saying Taiwanese crabs do dig, which can cause issues with hermits who are stuck in one place for a few weeks while they molt. I'm not seeing anything on how the Taiwan crabs molt with a quick search, but ...

Purple pinchers are known as tree crabs in their native ranges, so any vertical climbing space you can give them will be used!

Bubbling is a troubling sign of envrionmental stress - anything from temperature extremes to chemical exposure so while it's a red flag it doesn't narrow it down by much. Is there anything different that they could have been exposed to? Seasonal weather changes? I would do a bath if it were mine, ju...

And they can absolutely look "normal" after passing, if the conditions allow for it. I've had crabs die here at home and also found crabs at the store that were intact and looked as if they were resting and were pulled in so tight there was no wiggling them, but were for sure already gone. A little ...

There is a decent chance of them dragging it around the tank and/or walking through it, so be cautious of touching anything bare handed afterwards!

There's three options for getting crabs right now Adoption, either through our boards, Facebook groups, online classifieds, reptile rescues, etc. Many people get crabs and then change their minds because they're "boring". (And they don't do much so I do get the sentiment.) It's a great way to both h...

Concrete mites maybe, since they're fast? Or potentially even red velvet mites, though that should take care of itself as they grow and detach. https://bygl.osu.edu/node/1588#:~:text=So%2Dcalled%20%22concrete%20mites%22,walls%20of%20homes%20and%20buildings. A series of strong salt bath would be the ...

Physical scrubbing is the only way I found. Soaking to soften first helped a little, vinegar can help too. On flat spots like on the glass, a razor blade will make quick work of it. They don't bury into the substrate, so just scraping off the first 1/2 inch to an inch should be enough to take care o...

I have wood pieces I've treated 8 years ago that I've never had to touch again by doing this. I've also salvaged items that were covered in mold by scrubbing with hydrogen peroxide to remove the heaviest growth and then boiling this way. Previous attempts that used less salt or the soaking method an...

Completely natural salt chunks will dissolve due to the high humidity. Just something to keep in mind!