2 HERMIES...ONE DIED AFTER JUST 6 WEEKS!

Question
Hi. I found your website when searching for good information regarding hermit crabs. My father-in-law purchased 2 PP hermit crabs from Point Pleasant, NJ for my daughters (8 & 6) when we were on our family vacation for the summer. We've had them for 6 weeks, and one of them died, "Ocean" last night. When we were about to take them out of their habitat to play with them and give them a bath, my daughter picked up Ocean and put her in her bath, and it was very ulike her, but she didn't move. We were very nervous and did not know what she was doing. So, I picked her up, lightly sprayed her with water, and still, no movement. She was so lifeless and my daughters just started crying. The other hermie is "Sandy" and she's been walking very slow and not moving her tenticles like she usually does - fast and curious like. Anyway, when I was examining Ocean, I noticed her big PP claw was completely GONE and it was laying on the sand substrate near the food dish! Another smaller pincher was also broken, but still attached. I have a plastic hermit habitat that we got at the pet store in the mall, a thermometer and humidity gauge inside, climbing bars and closed in cage and I also spent over $200 on trees, calci-sand, sea salt, tons of organic foods, new shells, including mother of pearl, bark logs to climb on, treats, nuts, a castle hideaway,lots of cuttlebone chunks, and we give them 2 fresh water containers and a sea salt mixture in their hermie pool every night along with a different food every night. Everything we purchased besides the habitat was from thehappyhermitcrab.com. This is the best store to purchase everything we needed and wanted for our little hermies. Anyway, I want to know why our angel Ocean died? She just changed her shell for the very first time a few weeks ago and we thought this was progress for her and that she's becoming more comfortable with us. I even wondered if Sandy and Ocean got into a fight where Ocean ended up losing her little life. Why did her PP claw fall off, and was she in fact dead and why. The temp is always perfect - between 72-76 degrees and humidity at 80%, we give them fresh water in 2 containers and one with sea salt, tons of food selection every night something different, baths, water spraying, playing with them every night, etc. Why did our quarter-sized hermie die? Sandy is now alone, and I've read they should be in pairs or groups to avoid depression and stress. So, I want to make sure before we purchase new friends for Sandy that more won't die (thinking of getting 2 more for a total of 3). We have so  much love to give and so much space, toys, dechlorinated water, sea salt water, tons of different kinds of organic foods, veggies, fruits, etc. and we want to make sure our hearts won't get broken again by our unnexpected loss. We buried her this evening. She fell right out of her shell when my husband picked her up and I like them MUCH more in their colofrul shells that's for sure! (poor Ocean!)

Anyway, please let me know what I could have done, what I can do different in the future, and if I have a depression problem with Sandy now because she's now alone and if I should try and feed her, play with her, or leave her alone, etc. Any and all advice you can kindly provide is much appreciated more than you could ever know.

Thank you,

Dawn

Answer
I"am sorry your hermit crab passed away and I can understand how you want to make sure everythings perfect.

It sounds like your crab suffered from PPS(post purchase stress). This can happen in the time frame you had yours. The crabs are taken from the wild to a warehouse of a company then shipped to stores. They are easily stressed. By the time you take them home it's unsure how long they've been without proper food, water and care. Some crabs make it and some just can't destress.

If it were me, I'd bump up the temperature a bit. More towards 78-80, it's tropical where they are so it's ok for the temperature to fluctuate. I'd also calibrate the humidity gauge to make sure it's correct.

Limbs can be dropped when they are stressed. They can also be lost during a fight. To help avoid this make sure to have plenty of shells for them to choose from, in different sizes and openings.If you think it was due to a fight, make sure you are feeding a protein to them everyday.  

Bathing is up to you, if your water containers are deep enough the crabs will do that themselves.

As for playing with them, they were fairly new and it's suggested that for the first 4 weeks or more the crabs are not handled so they have time to destress. This is very important. I know it will be hard because you want to see the crab, but I cannot stress how important this is.

If you don't belong to a hermit crab forum I'd suggest joining one you like. There's a few out there and they all have information you can browse through.