So, when i brought one of my new crabs home, he stayed above the sand for a week. Then he went under and moulted for 3 weeks. Now, he's finished, and he comes up to eat, drink, etc. but he won't stay on top of the sand. He continues to crawl back in his hole. I know this is normal for about a week after a moult, but this has been going on for about 3 weeks now . Is this normal/healthy behavior? There's some poo in the tank so i know hes eating, and the water levels go down so i know he's in both dishes (and i've seen him eat. ive also seen him in the water dishes). The sand is aragonite sugar sized and the humidity and temperature are perfect. Any help would be appreciated
I agree with Wai. These little guys truly do have personalities, and I had one that would spend almost ALL his time out and about and sleeping in the "tops" of the plants throughout the day, while every other crab I owned was hidden away. He was such a treat, when he was doing that! After two molts, he has become like the others and hides out just as much as everyone else. Hopefully I'll see some changes when I put everyone back into the newly remodeled 55 gallon!
So no worries, if he's eating and drinking and not acting sick, enjoy him!
6 hermit crabs - 3 PPs and 3 Equadorians
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Are you using an UTH? You can encourage your hermit crabs to stay on the surface more often by using a CHE, which warms up the air. They are too strong for small tanks and must be used with a thermostat though. At the moment, 11 of my 14 hermit crabs are on the surface.
right now, no, i am not using an UTH. we have a humidifier thing that keeps the humidity constant, and a tank heater that keeps the temperature constant.
ok. i have an under the tank heater and a heater on the back. currently, the under the tank heater is unplugged because a crab is molting on top of it. the back one is working just fine heating the tank.
i was wondering if we should still keep using the heating pads at night and the light (of course unplugging the pads) during the day because of the the whole day and night cycle. or should i just stick with the heating pads and not get a light/heating bulb.
Did you get a light/heating bulb to help keep the tank warm? Any idea what the actual substrate temp is? (on both ends of the tank?)
A humidifier thing? Is this one for in the tank, or the human kind used in a room to help with the humidity? If you unplugged the UTH, what tank heater are you using?
Have you considered also turning off the radio that you mentioned you leave on for the hermies? Hermies are not like dogs or humans, they cannot hear and the constant vibrations may also be irritating him.
Marie (aka ladybug15057)
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yes, i did make the necessary changes to the tanks. I unplugged that UTH a long time ago because a hermit crab decided to molt on top of it. When he came back up, i plugged it back in. I changed the sand, i also did everything on that list. I have a thermometer in the sand, so theres a warm end (70) and a cool end (50). the humidifier is for tanks, not for humans. and yes, the radio has been turned off.
50*F is entirely too cool for a cool end. But the 70* F is wayyyy too cool for the warm side. The warm side substrate should be about 78-80*F and the cool end about 71-73*F. Not that it would be ok to have a cool end of 50*F, but with a warm end to the substrate of 78-80*F the hermies could at least get the warmth they require and cool a bit in the middle of the substrate where it should be warmer than the cool end. Please bump up your substrate warm end to 78-80* F. Too long with only the warm side of 70*F is harmful and eventually lethal to them, and prolonged 50*F is lethal.
Marie (aka ladybug15057)
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I have to agree, I lost a hermie because it got down to only 54*F in the tank (there was no warm end, the power was out) for probably 12 hours, and the power was out for 32 hours. It was awful.
Sounds like you have a mister kind of like the one I have maybe, that bubbles water in a container outside and forces the misted water into the tank through a hose with a few holes in it? If it is, isn't it great? I love mine! I have to have lights on all the time because it gets pretty cool in our house, and the tank is never as warm as I'd like. It drops down to about 74* at the warm end at night, but bumps up to about 76-78 during the day. It will be warmer in the summer, winter is just a tough time to keep things warm and humid. I LOVE the mister. I also have my fresh water dish directly over the UTH, on a flat rock, so it can warm and evaporate as well. I have a thermostat on the UTH though, so it keeps the temp below 82*F so no hermies will sit too long and get toasted.
6 hermit crabs - 3 PPs and 3 Equadorians
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Please feel free to share information from this website, but please be sure to give credit and a link back to the information. Failure to give credit is plagiarism. Don't take credit for someone else's information.
. Is this normal/healthy behavior? There's some poo in the tank so i know hes eating, and the water levels go down so i know he's in both dishes (and i've seen him eat. ive also seen him in the water dishes). The sand is aragonite sugar sized and the humidity and temperature are perfect. Any help would be appreciated 
