Newbie

[CrabbyJo]

If they just came up from molting, it is best to leave them be for at least a week until you see regular, active behavior. Sometimes they come up and their exo is still a little soft, so you don't want to be handling or stressing them.
Do they have little black tips on the ends of their legs? That's usually a good indicator of whether they've molted or not!

[thegatti]

They do have black tips on their legs. What does that mean?
I had to take them on holidays with me. I took them in a small ISO tank and they were fine

There are two new crabbies in my family. They still don't have names.Mabe their personality will help when I get to know them.lol

I'll have to post a pic when I can to show my guys/girls off

[emmac350]

If they have black tips on their legs, it means that they've molted fairly recently. They get sharp black "toenails" as we tend to call them after molting, but they eventually get rubbed down by walking on sand and climbing stuff. The bigger the crab, the duller the nails will be by the time they molt. Small crabs molt more often so their leg tips won't get as worn down by the time they have to molt again.

[thegatti]

I gave into temptation and bought two more hermies the day before my birthday . Their names are E.T and Crazy Jo. They are supposed to be medium crabs but they are larger than my other two. Mabe different stores have different size ranges.

Anyway, I was taking each hermit crab out of the tank and when I got Crazy Jo's shell out he wasn't there. I panicked, thinking he died or was streaking, but I found he was in a shell similar to E.T's.

How do u know which hermie is which if you have similar shells in the tank?

[roxanne]

Several of my shells are similar but may have a mark that slightly defines them ,but im lucky as all of my crabs are different shades . From my experience, Over time you just get to know whos who even if they have changed shells.

[Wai]

thegatti, are you keeping your four hermit crabs in a 20 L (5 gal) tank? That is way too small - it's even smaller than my iso! I think the Americans didn't pick up on that in your first post. You should be using at least a 40 L (10 gal) tank, even if you have less than five hermit crabs.

Most of my hermit crabs are of different sizes, so I can tell them apart that way. Also, their shades are different. Ixion and Sedna are roughly the same size, but Sedna is missing an eye. Eris and Ceres are roughly the same size, but Ceres is much darker.

[emmac350]

Good catch, Wai - I didn't realize it said 20L, not 20 gallons.

Also, I can usually tell my crabs apart based on their personalities. After you have them for a while, you'll learn which ones are shy, which ones are ALWAYS on the underside of the lid, who prefers spending the day where, etc. That's how I usually tell mine apart, although my 4 Es are so similar in size and coloring (if I don't have them all out to compare to each other) that I honestly just go by shell. Luckily, they're all in different shells right now. I try to avoid putting in too many shells that are the same - I have 2 shells like the ones both of my PPs are in, so I don't have the other ones like them in the shell shops.

[CrabbyJo]

I wouldn't suggest playing with them just yet if they just came up from a molt. Give them a few more days, up to a week, to regain strength and get back to normal. If they are behaving normally as they did before they molted, then they are probably fine. Otherwise, wait until they are eating well again and climbing all over before you disturb them. They may need a little more time to rest and gain their strength back.

As for traveling with your hermies, will you have a place to put them where they can stay the whole time? Will you be staying in one place, or traveling around?

[thegatti]

I am starting to tell the difference between them. E.T and Crazy Jo are more active and enjoy being out of the tank. Sherbert is always buried and Herbert stays on the surface but never really comes out of his shell. Could Herbert not like me??

Most of the time the three are buried. They do come out when I take the tank outside for some sunlight.

Sorry if I sound stupid, but why the need for all that tank space? I thought a gallon per crab was ok. I think my crabs are about 3cm long (measuring the length of shells) I know that they like to climb, but mine would rather bury themselves alive.lol

[emmac350]

You shouldn't take the tank outside 'for sunlight.' The temperature of a tank with direct sunlight skyrockets and can easily overheat the crabs.

A gallon per crab isn't enough because of the amount of unusable gallons in the tank. There're more than a few gallons at the top of the tank that don't count because the crabs can't use them. They travel miles in a night - they can't do that if they're all climbing all over each other trying to get somewhere.