HCA: Hermit Crab Association

If he is actually underground without a shell, he will not survive. However in a vast majority of these cases, the crab has taken a new shell and gone underground with it.

To clarify, he is has been underground for about a month now? Or he was underground for about a month and you dug him up?

What is your temperature reading?
Why are you not feeding them a balanced diet with a variety of foods, why mostly fruit?
How deep is your substrate?

What are your current heat and humidity readings?

Have either of them molted since you got them?

Just so I understand....the crab that was underground for a couple of months has surfaced, and the other crab's shell is empty but there is no naked crab?

I had a crab who was positioned like that, in order to use her big pincher to modify the 'top' of the shell.

Woke up this morning to find she has left her shell again. I don’t want to try to force her back in. She was so weak last time and I don’t want to traumatize her again…. I’ll try separating her with food. 😔 Thank you A crab without a shell will not survive. Be sure to read thru the Naked Crab care ...

How big is your tank?

1. What kind of substrate is used in your tank and how deep is it? EcoEarth coconut fibers and play sand mixture. I had a sand portion and coconut fiber portion separate but they never used the sandy area so I mixed them and they seem to like that. Depth is approx 4 inches 2. Do you have gauges in t...

Sounds like pretty normal crab behavior to me.

Welcome to crabbing and to the forum!
If your substrate is moistened to sand castle consistency, the crab could simply dig a hole somewhere else if it wants to go underground.

I do keep the substrate at the recommended "sandcastle consistency". As my tank's humidity drops down to about 65% in about four hours, I have to mist the tank multiple times a day and pour more water into the substrate twice a day. My heat lamp is the main source of heat and is on all the time (I h...

For my tank's substrate, I originally had beach sand, then added a large amount of a mix of multipurpose sand and coco fiber later. I currently have 4 inches of substrate in the tank. Curly - Is it moistened with dechlorinated water so that it holds it's shape? I do not have digital readers for my t...

What are your temp and humidity readings now?

What are you using for substrate?

Could I get your email? I’m in desperate need of help to get my hermies doing better and I’m scared I might want to rehome them because of how falsely I was told how easy it is to care for hermit crabs… Please note that emailing members is against the rules of the forum. And please stop making dupl...

I have a plexi glass lid with one corner cut out of the plexiglass to allow air flow. The corner isn't huge, like maybe 2 or 3 inches on each side.