HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hello all!
I recently got some hermit crabs from kijiji, (as I have all of my crabs), and had put them in a PPDS 5 gal to acclimate them to proper temps as I don't know the conditions they came in. There were 2, midnight and mulberry, midnight was eating great, swimming and drinking, digging in the 0.5 I'm of sub I gave for a "carpet", and was switching shells (talk about PP behavior )
But then there mulberry. She changed shells once, a few days in, she's a small, can comfortable sit on a loonie or even nickle for my Canadians, but since then hasn't moved much. I recently put her in a 20 gal to try and encourage them to molt before I put them in the 55 with 2 other crabs. Midnight went down almost immediately, but mulberry is hiding and hasn't eaten her dinners *changed every 24h and isn't repeated for a week plus*, or even the 24/7 mix of worm castings, eggshells, oyster shell powder and greensand.
I'm worried about her because she isn't moving, and all the other crabs I've done PPDS tanks with had almost instantly started moving more once it hit 80 for both humidity and temp and we're eating like they were starved (they likely were with pellets...)
Thanks all!

She’s either too weak to be active or just really shy, it may be too early to tell. Continue to maintain heat and humidity and provide good food while you monitor


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Sounds good, thank you! I currently do have some decorations for her to hide in, should I remove them to try and encourage her to eat more? She's mostly been hiding in one as mentioned above

No, leave them be. Taking away her favorite hiding place now will only stress her. Keep offering food and she’ll eat when she’s able and ready


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You don't really need to do any specific method to get crabs used to heat and humidity - you can put them directly into good conditions as soon as you get them. No specific method has been shown to increase survival rates.