How to encourage my crab to change shells

[Alysse]

Hi there. I recently adopted two hermit crabs from my work as they were being terribly neglected. Staff would laugh at the fact that they had no food etc. I think that's just so horrible and it upset me greatly which is why I now have these precious little creatures. It's amazing that I've only had them for a week but I have grown to love them so much in that time!

My question is, one of my crabs needs a shell change (I think) as he can't fit into his properly. When he retreats into the shell, he sticks out quite a bit. He only had one other shell to change into so I guessed that's why he never did, because he didn't like it. I have purchased a variety of shells for him that all seem appropriate but he won't change. I'm concerned for him and I was just wondering if he's fine the way he his if he's happy, or is there something that I could do so that he moves to a more suitable shell?

One other question I have is, I have used sand as the substrate and is wet like advised (moist enough to build a sand castle that will hold). I was just wondering, do the crabs need any dry spots, or are the drift wood and toys good enough as they can climb on top of them?

Thanks for any advice.

[Wai]

Hi there, fellow Aussie crabber!

I feel the same way you do too. A lot of pet store owners seem to pay no respect or love to their hermit crabs.

Hermit crabs don't always change into a shell that they may like immediately. For example, I had some turbos in my tank, but it took one month later for Eris to try them on. Be patient and he might give them a look once he feels secure (he may be afraid to try anything new, having being mistreated in the pet store).

What type of sand are you using? If it is play sand, then you should run a magnet through it to check if there are any magnetic substances such as iron, nickel and cobalt. These may rust and harm your hermit crabs. If you are using Calci-Sand, then I suggest you ditch it immediately. Calci-Sand is one of few sands that crabbers have blacklisted, because it clumps and moulds when subject to moisture.

I'm using a mixture of beach sand and Exo-Terra's Plantation Soil (coconut fibre) in a 1:1 ratio.

It is up to you whether you would like to wet the sand. Some crabbers, such as Marie (ladybug15057) lets her hermit crabs wet the dry sand themselves. On the other hand, I wet my substrate, since coconut fibre is supposed to be used wet.

Drift wood is infamously known to mould when it touches wet sand, so putting a small lid of dry gravel at places where the wood would touch the sand hadn't it been there.

[ladybug15057]

One cannot make a hermie change shells, but might be able to encourage them move a little. This can be done by boiling the shells (which should always be done prior to offering them anyway, and about once a week too) But after they cool, try misting within them with ocean water. This sometimes makes some hermies do an extra antenna twitch when they come across it. But if he is offered plenty of shells and doesn't move, seems he isn't all that uncomfortable in the shell he has now or just hasn't come across one that is to his liking.
And as Wai mentioned, I do use a dry substrate, but I use CaribSea sand. There are many others too nowadays who also use the dry sand as well and let the hermies dampen it if they want, the way they want it. But if one uses any of the 100% cocofiber substrates, or the hermie safe moss they do need to be used dampened so not to pull valuable moisture from the hermies causing them to dehydrate.

[Lette44]

I also use Caribsea sand and my hermit crabs love it. Trust me it starts out dry, but when they are ready to molt, they fill their shells w/water and start digging. They tend to only dig on one side of the tat, making me think they like the feel of both wet and dry sand. They also have a 2nd story moss pit for hanging out in. They enjoy that too. I've got a lot of shells for my crabs, but only recently with this last bunch did they really seem interested in changing shells. Now I don't know who is who! Marie's right, once boiled, cooled off and add some ocean spray and put it in a little pile different from where the other one's were - he's going to go check it out! They are nosey little hermies!!! Lette