QuestionHello~
Our land hermit crab, who we have had for a little over two months, climbed out of its shell yesterday while it was in the water dish. It crawled around in the water, and when we read up on it, we were excited to think it was moulting. This morning, however, it is apparent the crab has died. We're stymied. We have three empty shells sitting around, fresh water, food and pellets available, etc. Any ideas on what may have happened? Our son mists the enclosure once-twice daily, and the other crab in the enclosure (a reptile terrarium) has been doing well. Any thoughts or advice you could give us, things to look for and things we, as new LHC owners, should be doing?
Thank you in advance for your assistance!
Mrs. Shani
AnswerHello Mrs.Shani,
In my opinion if you have only owned the crab for 2 months, my guess it it died from pps(post purchase syndrome) crabs can be stressed from being shipped to the petstores or the petstore conditions....the conditions at which they are shipped are not always the best, neither is the care they receive in most petstores! I am sorry for your son's loss...Did you offer salt water? Not table salt(that will kill them) but aquarium salt water? Crabs need both....what is the substrate they are in? Playsand or forest bedding? Do you offer a protein such as shrimp,krill or fish? What is the temp and humidity in the tank? The range for the temp should be 75 to 80 degrees...the humidity level about 75 to 80 as well! What(species) type of crab is it? Certain species are more fragile than others! Sorry for so many questions..i need to know more! Thanks! Answering these questions will help me a bit! You can go to www.hermitcrabaddiction.net
That site has tons of great information! Good Luck and happy crabbing!
