|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| Say NO to Crabinacup sold at Walmart! Such humiliation and animal cruelty against hermit crabs must not be tolerated. |
| Say NO to the painted shells sold in many pet stores! Hermit crabs are not toys, nor are their shells. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| We truly appreciate your support! You may use the 90×90 icon above if you wish, but please upload it to your own server. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Surface and Buried Moults |
|
| Hermit crabs usually bury themselves in the substrate to moult. Never dig up a hermit crab, regardless whether you think it is moulting or not. Hermit crabs bury themselves and do not want to be found by their owner. In other words, hermit crabs do not play hide and seek. Digging up a hermit crab may inflict serious and irreversible psychological harm to it, because its privacy has been violated. Once you dig up a hermit crab, it may think that you will dig it up frequently, causing it to feel insecure and be reluctant to moult. Never dig up a hermit crab unless you are absolutely certain that it is dead. |
| On the other hand, hermit crabs may choose to moult on the substrate surface, though this is much more risky than moulting within the substrate. Do not dispose of the shed exoskeleton, because the moulter needs to eat it to replenish as much of its lost nutrients as possible. Also, there is no need to crush up the exoskeleton. The moulter knows which part of its shed exoskeleton to eat. |
| Some crabbers feel the need to isolate and shield moulters from other hermit crabs in the terrarium. Visit the Isolation section for more details. |
|
|
|
|
|
| The key to helping a hermit crab survive and recover from its moult is to leave it alone. Do nothing. Do not touch or dig up the moulter. Every moulter goes through extreme stress during their moult, therefore it is critical that you avoid disturbing them. |
| If you unexpectedly dig up a moulter, set up a barrier and the moulter (make sure that there are no hermit crabs buried near the moulter). However, do not attempt to rebury the moulter. Instead, place a hermie hut or similar over the moulter to shade it from the light. Hermit crabs will suffocate under the substrate if the air tunnel that they dug out is blocked. |
|
|
|
Distinguishing a Moult from a Death |
|
| One day, you may find an immobile body hanging outside the seashell that your hermit crab was wearing. Has your hermit crab died? Check carefully, because many inexperienced crabbers have mistakenly disposed of their moulters alive! If your hermit crab has moulted, then the immobile body hanging outside of the seashell is just the shed exoskeleton. |
| Below are some points to look out for to distinguish a dead body from a shed exoskeleton: |
| 1. |
Exoskeletons are hollow. If your hermit crab moulted above the surface, try moving or squeezing the 'body'. If it crunches or feels hollow, then it is just the shed exoskeleton. However, if your moulter is buried, do not disturb or dig it up. |
| 2. |
Can you see a small, pinkish claw in the seashell? Moulters will look smaller without their exoskeleton, but they will swell and grow as their new exoskeleton hardens. |
| 3. |
Is an abdomen attached to the body? Hermit crabs do not 'shed' their soft abdomen. If there is an abdomen attached to the body, then your hermit crab may have died, or is still moulting. Immediately leave the hermit crab alone and set up a barrier around it. If the hermit crab does not appear to have moved and a strong fishy odour is released from the hermit crab, then it may have died. |
| 4. |
The eyes of the exoskeleton are hollow and are translucent, since hermit crabs shed their eyes too. The eyes of dead hermit crabs are still dark in colour, just like when they were alive. |
|
|
|
|
Avoid Baking Moulters Alive |
|
| Some buried moulters in the past have died possibly due to overheating, especially those who buried themselves above an under tank heater that was not monitored properly by a thermostat. In the wild, hermit crabs bury themselves and expect the temperature to drop as they dig further down. After all, their only heat source in the wild is the Sun, which radiates heat from above. There are no under tank heaters in the wild, so they must be monitored carefully so that they do not cook any moulting hermit crabs alive. |
| Some crabbers have reported that their moulters who buried themselves in cooler regions of the terrarium survived, whereas those in the warmer regions died after failing to shed their old exoskeleton or harden their new one. Although the issue regarding the need to provide additional warmth to moulters is still debatable, we suggest that the substrate temperature at the cool end should be kept between 21°C - 23°C (70°F - 73°F). |
|
|
|
|
