HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Hi everyone! My name is Alex and I just picked up my two purple pinchers, Scuttle and Tank, yesterday afternoon. I'm super stoked to have them, I used to have hermit crabs as a kid all the time since I grew up on the Jersey Shore, but of course they didn't do so well in boardwalk critter keepers. I did have some correctly cared for crabs when I was in middle school (had to give them away), and I really missed having them. Now that I have my own place, I decided to invest in the two little guys

Scuttle and Tank are both pretty small, their shells are only a few inches long. Unfortunately, I was a fool and picked up calcium carbonate sand as substrate, so I just went to the hardware store for silica play sand as recommended. Once I can mix together a proper substrate, I'll feel much less nervous for them and their gills! My moss and coco fiber brick are coming later this evening, so thankfully they won't have to deal with the calcium carbonate sand for long. I wish Petco didn't mislead me with their "hermit crab" sand, it's so wrong that they can market harmful sand as a safe substrate for the species. It was also twenty dollars (!!!) which, like, come on man it's SAND.

Anyways, this forum has already been a wonderful resource for care and troubleshooting. I'm super excited to chat with you guys and see all your setups and crabs! I already want to expand my tank

Welcome to the board. It's good to see that your enjoying the articles and files already, they are a great resource! ^_^

Tank sizes can never be enough, even when I was at my maximum, I wished it was bigger. Even now, my current tank is too small for my liking.

Welcome, Alex! I’m Casey, have 5 Purple Pinchers and love taking care of them! Everyone here is very helpful and it’s a great place to use as a resource, you’ll love it!

I started with a 5 gallon and then went to a 20 and then a 40...all just since September of this year, lol. In my defense, I kept adding crabs so I had to add tank size too! I’ll always want bigger, but that will probably lead to more crabs, lol.


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Welcome Alex! I have 4 PP'S and a 16gal tote! (1 crab is tiny, 1 is very small, 2 are small) I'm excited to hear more about your crabby babies!
Here's a short description of each crab:
Pine- 1st crab I got, guardian of the colony and mildly shy
Mango- 3rd crab I got (After Star died) she is VERY tiny (as small as a dime!) and likes to keep to herself! (likes to hangout with Pine)
Pumpkin- My most outgoing crab! She loves to climb and cuddle with her sisters.
Blackberry- my most pigmented crab! She has really deep purple legs and claw. She's the newest, and is the most shy.
If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!