HCA: Hermit Crab Association

I went on vacation, 11 days, my brother was caring for my crabs. He says the tank conditions haven't changed. I am confused.

6 inches of sand castle sand/ee mix

humidity 85

temp 85

If anyone can help me figure out what the heck is happening here I would appreciate it.

could the crab of been dropped? Hope she pulls through for you, if anyone can help her its you.

No, if my brother handles any of my crabs it's Puppy the PP. And I asked him if he'd had any of them out. He said no.

The crab has dropped EVERY leg, and all pinchers. This is the crab that got my bf into them, if I can't save it he's going to be so depressed.


Temperatures here hit the high 90's while I was gone, but my brother said [and recorded in writing] the daily tank temps and not one of them is above 85.

is there maybe a crab who has been bullying him excessively?

I haven't seen anything. It's possible though.

I need liquid suggestions to make foods for him.

I know honey is a good one, but I don't want it to be every single meal.

I'm thinking of alternating, with honey, olive oil, and baby food pastes? Mixing in things like ground flax seed, ground crickets, perhaps for protein? I've never had to do a strictly paste food. Just powdered. Poor love, he's so fighting his hardest, using his little shell holder legs to pull himself out of the shell and grabbing the toothpick and grubbing the food like crazy.

Baby foods are great for that. Powdered foods mixed with a bit of juice is always good too. Id make sure to give some bee pollen, comfrey and passsion flower plant if you have it. Just my opinion on things that comfort and calm.

Babyfoods are really good for this, Ive had to hand feed and water a few Es that were destroyed during molting. One recovered pretty well while preparing to molt....molt didnt go so well---the days of commercial foods!

For him, I mixed some of the fruit blend baby foods or the meat blend baby foods with spirulina/algae of some kind, honey, and peanut butter. Then I used a Q-tip to feed him--just because he seemed to like the softness of the Q-tip over a toothpick, and the Q-tip held more food on it and the moisture didnt drip off.

I used a spoon to drip water, both kinds into his shell twice a day, he also got fed twice a day. And I would sit him over the food dish as well, I just leave my concoction in there with him and directly under but not touching his mouth parts, should he want to attempt it....not sure if that will be possible for yours since he doesnt have any legs or pincers for support.


How long have you guys had this straw??? Perhaps he was preparing to molt and the stress was too much? Maybe a new food? or a new water--tap or bottled?

I would think if your tank got too hot youd have more than just this straw behaving this way, it would be numerous crabs. Im at a loss of ideas for what could be the culprit.

Oh my goodness poor crabby! Rooting for her over here... :(

Had him since March. He's already molted with me once. I prepared the water myself right before I left, and the person changed it out... According to the log, Sunday at 2:30 pm. My brother has cared for my crabs before. And never had any issues with them.

I give him a little bit of a dunk in the pools, and pour off the water so there's not too much.

He's in our thoughts here. I hope he makes it!

SebbyCrab wrote:I went on vacation, 11 days, my brother was caring for my crabs. He says the tank conditions haven't changed. I am confused.

6 inches of sand castle sand/ee mix

humidity 85

temp 85

If anyone can help me figure out what the heck is happening here I would appreciate it.

So sorry to hear about this.

I'd also like to add that something similar happened to my nearly year-old (under my care and had previously molted successfully) Indo, who had recently passed away this past Monday, and left me also puzzled as the conditions are also pretty much met as far as I am concerned.

I would hope for the best, but expect the worst - I would try to care for the little fellow as much as possible with the above suggestions. Hope your crab fares better than mine and pulls through.

:c i'm really sorry to hear that. there's not a lot i can tell you that hasn't already been otherwise posted except i hope she pulls through! it's great she has such a dedicated crabby-mommy who's willing to take care of her, and i'm sure she appreciates it.

i would have to go with maybe another crab bullying her and stressing her to the point of dropping legs...or maybe some mysterious crab illness.

He is still fighting. I refuse to take pics of him, because I want do not want to have a photo memory of this, I want him to pull through and molt so much. Adam [my boyfriend who named the crab] has suggested that when he starts molting I watch and see if perhaps I can help push the exo off with dampened q-tips.

I would worry about hurting him doing that though.

I wouldn't try to help him molt beyond giving him a nice, safe and dark place to do so. Crabs are very squishy when they first molt and you may accidentally hurt him without meaning to.