Hi! New and worried...

[Kaliya22]

Hi,

I'm new to here and new to crabs. I did a decent amount of research prior to getting my crabs.
I have a 29 gallon breeder tank. I have about 4 inches of sand and coconut fiber substrate. I've got salt water bowl and fresh water bowl. They have hiding spots, and one very small live spider plant, which they absolutely love digging in the dirt around that.

I got 4 crabs from Petsmart a week ago today. They were the only living ones they had left (there were 3 dead ones, or at least the guy could not get any sign of life from them). There is a smaller one, 2 medium, and one larger. But the largest is still not all that large. They have not been very active, I often wake up to find them in the same spot as when I went to bed. They also have not eaten much. The littlest one has probably been the most investigative of the tank. The largest has swapped shells once (as soon as I put shells in there, that was delayed because no stores had any good ones so had to order off Amazon). The largest is also the only one I have caught actually eating.

One of the mediums buried himself about 4 days ago. The larger one just dug down into the same area last night, exposing the medium. I don't know if either are molting or digging for fun. But my biggest scare was last night I looked at the other medium and he'd lost his claw. This morning I saw another limb beside it. Now I read a bit and seen where that's happened to others. But is there any reason it happens? Is there anything I should be doing?

From reading on here I could probably use another couple inches of substrate. And I've been working on improving humidity. What could cause them to be so inactive? Should I add a couple more? They don't really hang out together.

[JoeHermits]

Losing limbs is likely from Post-Purchase Syndrome (PPS), a blanket term for any illness or injury found in new crabs. It’s fairly common due to the physical and mental stress of being captured, transported, and placed in captivity. Not a whole lot you can do except make them comfortable. Proteins and calcium are good for regrowing limbs.

As for the activity, that’s normal. It takes time for hermit crabs to get comfortable moving around, so you’ll have to be patient.

If they like having their own places then leave them be. Getting more crabs won’t change that.


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