HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Long story short about the end of summer through I think February I bought 7 hermits. 2 died quickly so I added more. Went right underground. Haven’t seen 4 of them in almost a year I guess. One was out and about. Active. Could hear him every morning while I had coffee. Now he’s missing. I was taking out the hides and stuff because I’m sure they’re all dead. Found the big pincer on the sand. So how do I empty out the sand? More so with this last one. He’s been down for a few weeks. I’m not horrible but I can’t put the time and money into a tank of really nothing. And what does it mean when the big pincer is off?

Alyw77 wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 04, 2023 2:25 pm

Long story short about the end of summer through I think February I bought 7 hermits. 2 died quickly so I added more. Went right underground. Haven’t seen 4 of them in almost a year I guess. One was out and about. Active. Could hear him every morning while I had coffee. Now he’s missing. I was taking out the hides and stuff because I’m sure they’re all dead. Found the big pincer on the sand. So how do I empty out the sand? More so with this last one. He’s been down for a few weeks. I’m not horrible but I can’t put the time and money into a tank of really nothing. And what does it mean when the big pincer is off?

Is it hollow like an exo? It could be from another crab? If you think it is best , and that at least 6/7 of them are dead then you should empty the sand gently with a small bowl or plastic container and into an trashcan, trash bags, or what ever else you feel is the best way to move it. I guess you could put it in ur dumpster and let the trash people deal with it (most trash companies have have a machine that picks up the big trash cans and dumps their contents into the back of the trash truck), you really don't know what to do with it. If you find him underground you may be able to save him. How big is ur tank? How deep is ur substrate?

I believe it’s a 60 gallon tank. About 6 inches of sand/fiber substrate. And it looked very much like the claw was hollow. I thought I read a few times that if the big pincer is off it’s not a very good sign.

I just was slowly sifting the sand into a garbage. Found two empty shells. On the other side we’re two live ones. Just bought sand to replace what I threw out. Only have coco fiber right now

Alyw77 wrote: ↑

Tue Jul 04, 2023 5:21 pm

I just was slowly sifting the sand into a garbage. Found two empty shells. On the other side we’re two live ones. Just bought sand to replace what I threw out. Only have coco fiber right now

Are there any missing crabs? Was one of the ones you found the one that just went under?

There are 3, at least 2 (they went under almost a year ago) missing. One of them was the one that just went under. I know one of the empty shells was like the or 4th one to go under. I don’t remember about the other empty shell.

I hope you didn't throw out all your sand! You can totally re-use it, no need to spend money on more.
How do the crabs you found look? Were they molting or just hanging out underground?
What is your plan now, to keep them or find new homes?

I did throw out the sand. It was at the very end that I found them. They were totally healthy. But they went underground after about 5 minutes. I’ll keep them. By the way, I had to buy new sand and trying to get the sandcastle consistency. I kept adding more. How much is too much sand?

Oh and they were just hanging out.

Like how deep is too deep? Or like how much is too much in ratio to coco fiber/ eco earth?

Depending on how big your crabs are, your sub should be about 3 times as deep. You can go deeper but you don't need too deep if you have PPs. As for ratio, any ratio is fine - you can use all eco earth or all play sand or a mix of the two in any ratio. Play sand is cheaper, so many people use more of that than the coco fiber - but some coco fiber does help hold moisture which helps with the play sand consistency.

Glad to hear you are going to keep them! If you have a big tank like that, and a heater already - then that is the biggest part of the budget that you will spend!

I meant how deep is too deep. They are probably about 2-3 inches big. I just don’t want them suffocating. The substrate is about 1 foot deep

No depth should be too deep (think about the sand on the beach!), as long as there is adequate space between 'ground level' and the top of the tank for them to explore.

Great! Thank you!

The potential risk of 'too deep' is anaerobic bacteria way down deep where there is no oxygen, leading to a bacterial bloom. Be sure to mix it all up now and then when nobody is down, and keep and eye on your substrate for signs of bacterial bloom.

Ok. As long as they don’t get stuck down there. Trapped. It is all mixed. Sandcastle consistency. Btw the other one is up now. On top of the sand sitting there. Hanging out!