Hermit Crab boy or girl?

Question
I was REALLY wondering how to tell if your land hermit crab is a girl or boy? And do hermit crabs pinch often, does it hurt?
                                         Jill

Answer
Dear Jill,
thank you for your question.
Hermit crabs pinch only when they are afraid, for example when you handle them and they are scared of falling, then they will grip the skin of your hand. But you can always hold the crab by its shell to take it out of the tank when neccessary and then put it down somewhere (don't hold it by the shell long, especially when the crab comes out of the shell). Getting pinched is painful, those pinchers are really strong even with small crabs, but usually they let go fast. If they don't, hold the crab under lukewarm water, that will make it let go. Or you can put your hand flat on the floor so that the crab can just walk away. Don't try to pull the crab off, that will only make it pinch harder. Most times, all you get is a small bruise at most.

To sex your crabs, hold them by the shell in front of you over a table so that they have to stretch to reach the ground. Take a look at the back of the last pair of walking legs, the one closest to the shell. If yuo see tiny openings on the first segment, you have a female. The openings are her gonopores, the male deposits his sperm there when they mate. But it doesn't really matter if you get male or female crabs since they all get along well and won't breed in captivity anyway. This website has good pictures of male and female crab anatomy:
http://www.thecrabbagepatch.com/crabanatomy.html
I hope I was of some help to you
Jennifer