HCA: Hermit Crab Association

Is it more common for the crabs to dig right in to their tank when you bring them home, or is it more common for them to wander around and not disappear under the dirt for a while? Does the behavior vary between species or does it just depend on the individual?

Depends on the individual. They would either dig or just wander around, regardless of species, well, at least in my experience (C. clypeatus, compressus, perlatus, brevimanus, cavipes, and rugosus).

My E's where very active.
They all wondered around the tank.
Climbed like no bodies business.
They dug trenches but stayed above ground.

Then after a few weeks
they all dug down
and molted.


Hope this helps.
I would think it also depends how badly they where treated in the shop.

I have found that mine usually run and hide for the first day or so and then most will ocme out and do some exploring after a few days have apssed.

I have a bit of both.. Some I have brought in.. hit the food bowl and gone.. DUG IN
Others run and play, and stay top side....
I think it just depends on the crab....
I have 2 very shy ones... and 1 that thinks she is the best thing since sliced bread....

Just like everyone else said, it depends on the crab. I've brought home both E's and PP's who run and climb and then I've brought some home that dig down instantly. It depends.

Yep, it depends on the individual crab. Sometimes it also depends on whether they need to molt or not, especially with smaller crabs that need to molt more frequently.

In my experience, they are very active the first day or so, because they're exploring the tank.

After that, some go down and some stay up. I get my crabs from a store with ideal conditions, so PPS isn't much of a problem.

So, as almost everyone else said, it does depend on the crab.

In my opinion they usu ally eat like little piggies for a few days. Since they now have a better diet. And drink lots of water ... especially if the store did not have salt water.

But they all go down eventually. Some take a few weeks, some a few days.

I've had them stay up and never seem to really need to de-stress, stay up for a few days to a couple weeks then go under and molt, or dig right under and reappear weeks later freshly molted.

I think the usually occurrence at my house, regardless of species, has been up and down for a few days then MIA for 3-6 weeks. I have yet to have one come up for good w/out molting.

The last PP I purchased stayed up for 4 wks(was only buried during the day to sleep) and is now MIA, where I'm sure he is molting.

I just came home with a pair of lovelies, and one of them immediately found a spot to dig down the moment I set him on the substrate. The other went for the food I had just put out for them and ate honey for ten minutes or so, and is currently wandering around the tank, climbing all over everything. The digger is definitely a PP, and I'm not entirely sure what the explorer is.