# Hermit Crab Adventures



## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I thought I'd start a better-named thread to post crabby updates and pictures on, if no one minds. 

I'm super excited tonight because when I went to put in frozen food, I found Boromir, the medium crab, by the dry food bowl. I kind of scared the heck out of the poor guy, really.  He tried to run for the hills, and I probably should have let him, but I've been wanting to measure shell openings so I can make sure I have appropriate sizes in the tank. So out he came for a minute or so. He was less than impressed & wouldn't come out while I held him (understandably), but I still took a couple quick pictures.





I love how pretty and bright his colors are.  And I'm absolutely thrilled that two of my crabbies are up, even if they're only come out at night! Now I'm just waiting on the other small crab, Merry. He was missing a leg when I got him, so I'm hoping he's taking a nice long time to molt & hopefully regrow it.


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## Draenog (Feb 27, 2012)

So cute I've always loved hermit crabs 

I remember catching tiny ones on the shores of the Mediterranean sea in Greece as a child. They were so cute.


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## Soyala_Amaya (Aug 1, 2011)

So, thought this was neat...weird...but neat
http://inhabitat.com/aki-inomatas-crystalline-3d-printed-hermit-crab-shells-meld-nature-and-architecture/aki-inomata-3d-printed-hermit-crab-shell-2/?extend=1


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I love their adorable little faces and eyes. Also I was told on my hermit crab forum that he probably did molt - in the second picture, you can see little black tips on the ends of his legs, which is an indicator of a recent molt. So that explains his pretty colors.  I'm glad it went well for him, molting is one of the crabby things that I'm most anxious about!

And that's interesting, Soyala! I've seen similar things, such as someone who makes glass/mineral shells for crabs. As long as the materials aren't harmful to them, it's pretty neat!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I'm so excited - both of the crabs that were burrowed underground for the past 5 weeks are up now! And it's clear that they've both molted successfully as well.  I feel like I've gotten over my first huge hurdle with owning hermit crabs. Molts can be dangerous & is one of the most common times to lose a hermit crab. So I was really anxious about them. I think my third crabby, Pippin (who's been up for the past 5 weeks) has gone down to molt now as I haven't seen him in a few days, possibly a week. But I'll just have to wait and see.

In the meantime, here's my two beautiful, newly-molted babies!

Boromir (a medium crab)


Merry (a small crab)


I think Merry's shell in this picture is ugly, but I got a chance to measure his opening while he was out. So I put in a bunch of appropriately-sized shells last night and got what I was hoping for - the ugly shell was abandoned today when I checked.  I'm not sure what he moved into yet, I haven't seen him today.

Boromir is still in the new Favorite Place - perched on back of the cork round, underneath the shell shop. Both of them were there when I found them last night.





They've also been destroying their dry food dishes.  The protein powder mix I made is disappearing pretty quickly, and so are the earthworm castings. Apparently worm poop is a hermit crab favorite. Who knew? :lol: And they're pooping in the supplements dish too, quite a bit. :roll: Someone needs to tell them they're not supposed to poop in their food!


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## MaryJ83 (Jan 1, 2013)

I've been following all of your updates. Glad to hear things are going so well. They sure seem like happy spoiled little crabs!


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I"m glad you're enjoying my updates!  I'm seriously loving talking about these little guys to anyone and everyone. My poor coworkers are probably very tired of me by now. :lol: But to their credit, no one's told me to shut up yet!

Boromir, my medium crab, is an adorable dork & decided to switch into my prettiest shell last night. It also happens to be the biggest shell in there & way too big for him. :lol:





He can almost disappear inside it! But he's such a cutie. He's starting to get a little bolder after his molt & came out while I was holding him tonight, which I was thrilled about.



Unfortunately, newly molted crabby nails are SHARP! So the holding didn't last terribly long. It was still really nice though. 

As for the other two, Merry's disappeared again (possibly burrowed to flee the scary giant who harassed him the other night?) & Pippin's still MIA with a possible molt. Boromir's being a piggy & making a nice mess of the food dishes without any help though. :lol: So far he's a huge fan of the powdered bonemeal, earthworm castings (these are the favorite by far right now), and my powdered protein mix. I think he's been nibbling at the dried squash & cucumber too, they're always dragged over to the protein side of the bowl.


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## MaryJ83 (Jan 1, 2013)

It is a very lovely shell but you are right about it being a bit big for him. He is really kind of comical looking in it! lol


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## MomLady (Aug 14, 2010)

Sounds like everyone's adjusting. 

Boromir is really a cutie, seems like their personalities are starting to come out.

Great pictures too.


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## writergirlmel (May 16, 2015)

It seems Boromir is the type to sacrifice for fashion! "Your arbitrary measurements mean nothing to me, Human! The Great Boromir shall look _fabulous_!"


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Well, I suppose I'm overdue for an update on these guys!

Pippin's still MIA, presumably molting. I'm still anxious, hoping he'll come up before I have to move. He has three weeks & two days to get his butt back up with nice hairy legs & sharp nails!

Merry has also been MIA since I last saw him. I'm pretty sure he decided it was safer to stay burrowed than be on the surface where the giant can grab him...  I'm hoping he won't get too freaked out by the move, but we'll see, I guess. I have a feeling he'll always be a shy crab, but I'm hoping with time & once I can stop moving him all over the place, he'll settle down a bit.

Boromir, however...He doesn't care at all. :lol: I've taken him out a couple times & while he's not a fan, he doesn't pinch me & still goes all over the tank anyway. He's my favorite little model & I've gotten a lot of pictures of him as I keep taking pics each time I find him in a new spot for the first time. So, here's a ton of pictures! 

He's chosen another new shell, which fits him much better. The opening is 1 1/8" & while I think it might still be a tad big, it's not nearly as giant as the last one & it's still very pretty. 



Look at this handsome little guy. 



He's been chowing down each night & I've caught him in both the supplements dish & food dish numerous times. So far he likes (all freeze dried or dried) mealworms, shrimp, crickets, bloodworms, 8-grain cereal mix, jicama, elder flowers, and blackberry leaves. But his favorite seems to be earthworm castings (poop). :roll: It's what I have in the supplements dish with calcium & he demolished it for at least a week straight before he decided to start eating other things too.



I also discovered he likes eggshells, I've put a couple in there & he likes pinching off the edges.



He's been enjoying both pools now as well! I just changed water today & there was a ton of sand & such in the saltwater pool. Here he is on the edge of the freshwater pool.



And up in the moss pit.



I have the leaf & flower bowls both raised, sitting in little soap holders. I finally caught him in both places, though it's hard to tell if he's just checking them out or eating the mixes. I think I'm going to start changing them twice a week to give him more variety.





I accidentally surprised him when I opened the tank earlier today & found him like this. :lol: "Nothing to see here, move along now..."



He also figured out how to get up to the lower level of my two-level shelf. But I'm a bad mama & don't have anything interesting up there, so once he got up, he just sat there for a second like he was thinking "Okay...now what?" 



He spends a lot of time in the shell shop too!



I felt really bad because most of the shells are for the smaller guys & won't fit him. I don't have nearly as many choices for him. So yesterday I caved & ordered more shells for him. :lol: We have three 1" opening shells coming from one site. And the other order already arrived today! They're all tapestry turbo shells.



I was pretty excited because the opening sizes were one 1 1/16", two 1 1/8" (his current size), one 1 3/16", one 1 1/4", and one 1 5/16". Perfect stepping stones! If at least one or two of the three shells still coming do turn out to be 1" openings, then we'll be all set with a nice range.  That should keep him happy with some choices for a while, but I'm sure I'll buy more later anyway, hehe.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Crabby update!

I'd posted in another thread that Boromir, my medium crab, has been burrowed & presumably molting for the past month. He finally came up on Saturday, much to my happiness & relief. He's been in an ISO tank, because he had burrowed down in that & I didn't want to dig him up yet again (he'd already been dug up twice - it's very stressful for them). I left him in the ISO for Saturday night with fresh food & water and 5 extra shells to check out.

Sunday found him with a well-raided food dish & a new shell! He chose a very pretty one...that's huge on him! He seems to like going for roomier shells so far, but this one is so big. :lol: I do hope he keeps it though, I love it. He's been a little shy since his reappearance, but that's pretty normal...I'm hoping he hasn't had a personality change & will be very jumpy from now on, but we'll see. He's starting to move around the main tank more today, which has relieved the worries I had that he's having too much trouble moving around in the large shell. I did add another small cholla branch next to the fresh water pool as I'm not sure the fake plant that trails into the pool is strong enough to support his shell's weight.

Pretty shell! It's a tapestry turbo with spots dremeled into it.


Pretty purple claw.


"Hm...not quite sure it's safe to come out."


"Alright fine, hello then."


Today when I opened the tank up to check on him, I was surprised to find one of the littles up too! I'd thought they were both burrowed as there's been little activity in the main tank for a week or so at least. I picked them up to say hi & get a picture...my mistake. Little one started pinching when I picked them up & didn't let go till I put them down! Ouch. I think it was probably Eowyn given how quickly she popped out (Merry has stayed firmly in their shell almost every time I've picked them up), but I'm not positive. It's hard to tell the difference between the two littles right now, especially because they're in similar shells.

"I demand you put me down, giant!"


"This looks like a good place to hide..."


"Can't see me now, can you?" Green turbo shells are great for camo!


And apparently this plant makes a nice jungle gym for hanging upside down in. :lol:


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## octopushedge (Apr 26, 2015)

This is too cute, please keep updating! Before I had permission to have a proper pet in my apartment, I was very strongly considering hermit crabs. I love that all animals, big and small, have such a wide range of personalities! Your terrarium is also gorgeous. I'm so happy to see they're getting as much care as a hedgehog would 

Have you ever seen this video before? It opened my eyes to the world of hermit crabs.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

Thank you!  It's different now from the earlier pics on this thread, here's an updated picture.



This is a 40g, with substrate that's around 7-8 inches deep. I'm really looking forward to upgrading them again already. :lol: My original plan was to put an Exo-Terra of the same footprint on top of this tank to add height/climbing room. I can move more things up & off the substrate with that, so they'll have more of that digging room available, and I can also increase the substrate depth a bit, to 10-12 inches.

However, that may depend on what I end up doing with the ball python I'm getting. Her current owner has been working on a new enclosure for her & said I could take it with her. I want to wait & see what it looks like & what the dimensions are before I decide whether to use it or put her in the 55g I bought for her. If I put the snake in the handmade enclosure, then I may move the hermit crabs into the 55g. The 55 is 21" tall, so I could still do 10-12" of sub with plenty of room left over for decorations, second levels, and climbing space.

I hadn't seen that video before, very cool!  Thank you for sharing! I've heard about the shell-exchanging lines, and about the housing crisis that wild hermit crabs are facing...very sad.  I wish people would stop collecting them to have them sit around their house & gather dust or to be used as decoration. I understand that they're pretty, but when it's causing such a problem for another species....that's not okay. Artificial shells (like glass ones) aren't good for them because they may break more easily, and I'm not sure the clearness is good for an animal who is used to hiding in darkness when they pull into their shell. The artificial ones are also difficult to modify, which is important for making them comfortable for hermit crabs (I don't think they modify the shells themselves, but use ones that have been modified by other species? But still a factor).


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## octopushedge (Apr 26, 2015)

Do you have a humidifier and everything set up in there? It's so well hidden. 

I've heard the glass ones are a big issue because hermit crabs have extremely sensitive skin on their abdomens, so with glass shells you run the risk of them getting burned and being unable to do anything about it. Unfortunately there's also now companies selling crab shells that have been painted, glittered, googly-eyed, etc. It takes shells out from the natural environment and there's debate over whether the paint and glitter can cause health problems for the crabs  so much craziness because people can't be happy with naturally beautiful shells! 

So what pets do you own now?


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

No humidifier, though I'd tried using one with our first tank back at home. When you put the substrate in, you add water until it's at "sandcastle consistency" - so when you clench some in your first or make a little hill out of it, whatever, it should hold its shape. That way you know it will hold a burrow & won't collapse on the crabs when they dig. That helps to maintain the humidity a bit. To help keep it as high as it needs to be (around 80% is preferred, higher is fine but will increase mold growth), I have air stones in both of the pools, hooked up to an air pump meant for a 10g tank. It works very well! I also have the lid completely covered with tin foil, which keeps the humidity from going straight out. I have windows over both pools, and covered one window back up to keep the humidity at the right level. If you're using air stones, it's not as much of a concern if you have the whole lid covered since the air stones bring in fresh air.

As far as I know, there isn't a debate about the painted/decorated shells that hermit crabs are sold in - they're considered dangerous, period. The paint & varnish put on them is toxic to the crabs if they happen to ingest any of it. Almost any time you offer a hermit crab that's in a painted shell a suitable natural alternative, they'll switch. The other problem with the painted shells is that they're rarely the kind of shell that purple pinchers (the species of hermit crab most often sold in stores) prefer, which are turbos. They like nice round openings, not D-shaped openings or those shells with the long thin openings. One of my small crabs came to me in a painted shell. The previous owner tried to say that she'd offered him other shells & he just wouldn't change. The other shells were mostly the wrong sizes or kinds (most were too small, if I remember correctly). When I put him in my tank, laid out a variety of good shells that were clean & had a bit of salt water in them, and he switched that night. 

Right now I just have the three hermit crabs and a 15 year old ****er spaniel. Once my friend & I have our own place, I'll be bringing home the ball python first, because she's not in a great situation right now. Once she's settled in & has had a vet check, I'll be gathering a few more supplies I need & will be adopting one of Soyala's rescue hedgies.  I can't wait!! Not sure what will follow those guys, I'll have to see what my financial situation allows & such. I do want to get one or two betta fish as well, so those may be the next additions since they don't have a huge cost past the initial start up costs (and I already have some tanks I could use, they're just not as big as I'd prefer).


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