QuestionQUESTION: For the past two weeks my big hermit crab has just been sitting by the water dish. For the past 3 days its been sitting in the water dish. Yesterday it totaly came out of its shell in the water dish. Now the crab has been under a fake bush (still out of its shell), isolated from all other hermit crabs, given food and water, and hasnt moved in almost 20 hours. I cant see any "molting sac", and the feelers are starting to dry up. However, I've noticed cracks in his legs over the past few weeks, and the hermit crab doesnt smell like it has died yet. It seems that it was showing signs of molting for the past few weeks, but I dont know if it has died in the process, or something has gone wrong. All 3 of my ther hermit crabs are acing normally, so i dont think that it had anything to do with the temperature or any other conditions in the tank. What is going on here?
ANSWER: Hello, if the crab is under a bush out of its shell it has died the shell helps retain mositer to keep the crab hydrated without it they soon die also they stay in there shell after a mult and may well stay in a shell for a moult...I've never WEatched a hermit moulting before but had it happen about 5 times with different crabs.
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QUESTION: You were right, it started to smell HORRIBLE last night so i got rid of it. I still have a few more questions...
Did I do anything wrong? I had them all in a 20 gallon tank (2 big crabs and 2 medium sized crabs) The temperature however fluctuates between the low 70's to the mid 80's. It doesn't really seem to bother the other crabs though. I mist the tank 2 times a day, and i change there food and water every week.
Also, I still have one big hermit left. How much substrate should i have for him to dig in? I don't want him to face the
same fate any time soon.... Also, all my hermits have purple
claws and colorful legs. I don't know what type they are, but should i be giving them saltwater also?
AnswerHello no sounds like eveything was just fine but there food should be changed every few days it will get damp and start to mold in just a day or two of being wet...mold would kill the crabs. I reccomend 2 to 3 inches of fine barkchip reptile bedding the stuff that looks like mulch(never use real mulch it might contain ahrmful fertilizers/perservitives or cemicals otherwise). I found this to be the best bedd ing when I had crabs...playground sand avalible at hardware stores is ok as well but very very messy and hard to to the tank with this stuff in it...also if you have a large tank like yours it would make the tank very heavy as well. Those are purple pincher crabs with the potencil to live 25 years and grow as big as a cantlope...I once saw on a website two 25 year old purple pinchers that had been bought as tiny quartyer sized babies are they grew to the size of cantalopes and were 25 years old! I gave all my crabs and I had everykind except the strawberry ones I wanted them but couldnt find them anywhere or find an import of them anywhere so gave up, as I was saying I had salt water and just declorinated water for all my crabs yuo must of course declorinate both dishes of water but only put salt in one.... use fish tank salt not table salt that would kill them for a small water fish just put in 1/2 to 1 teaspoon just enough for the water to be salty as this stuff is expensive and yuo want the package to last as long as possible. best of luck with your remaining hermit and be sure to get him some friends soon hermits really dont like being left alone.
